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  • From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
  • To: kludwig@mhub.students.wisc.edu, terry Jobsis <ctjobsis@facstaff.wisc.edu>, midwestpermaculture@yahoogroups.com, permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: [grazersedge] Dexters
  • Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 10:15:18 -0500

Still more from the grass farmers, Dexters are a small breed of cattle.
Mark
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 18:57:13 -0400
From: Linda Graves <gravesfarm@madbbs.com>
Subject: [grazersedge] Dexters
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Folks- I said I'd try to post some pictures of the Dexters on the website.
These aren't the greatest pics, but they give you some idea of the growth
rate of the babies, and the beef type that is attainable in this breed. You
can either click on the links below, or go to the Yahoogroups page for this
list, and go to "photos"

<http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/grazersedge/vwp?.dir=/&.src=gr&.dnm=Dun+Dexter+with+4+month+heifer.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/grazersedge/lst%3f%26.dir=/%26.src=gr%26.view=t>

<http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/grazersedge/vwp?.dir=/&.src=gr&.dnm=Dexter+Collage.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/grazersedge/lst%3f%26.dir=/%26.src=gr%26.view=t>

Both the dun and the black cow (with horns) were two years old last
summer. The black cow produced the partly speckled heifer calf from a Texas
Longhorn bull. It grew *very* fast, and we were attributing that growth
rate to hybrid vigor and what we assumed was going to be a much larger
framed final size. As it turns out, that may not be the case. The calf, now
a yearling, hasn't grown much from her size at 8 months, although she is
filling out. She has shown regular heats since she was 5 months old- the
only other breed I've ever seen do that are the Jerseys. This calf was
raised totally on milk and pasture- the dam was more than semi-wild and
never got any grain at all until we finally roped them and brought them in
the barn for the winter.
The dun cow (I included the collage of pics to show her relative size
to a human- the teenager holding her in one picture is my son, who was
about 5' 10" at the time. It's hard to describe how SHORT these cows
actually are unless there is a reference point, mainly because they are
very well proportioned) calved on February 1st. Her heifer calf weighed 47#
at birth. The pics of the exactly 6 months old calf nursing in the barn
show that same rapid growth rate pattern. I can't say the calf grew that
way on only milk- she's had the run of the barn and has become very skilled
at stealing mouthfuls of grain from the dairy cows <g>
Admittedly, we're not even close to experts on beef cows- for 25+
years, we've attempted to get all hints of beef OUT of our cows! But, just
watching the ability of these calves to grow, both in frame size and
putting on flesh, I'm impressed. And, unless these are anomalous for the
breed, it looks to me that you could easily expect to butcher at 16 months
(thereby avoiding wintering them over for 2 winters, if they're born in the
spring). After that time, they will probably gain flesh, but I'd suspect
that it's at a much lower rate of gain per day, thereby not economical.

Anyway, I'd like to hear some thoughts from those who DO raise beef cows!
Linda Graves
Western NY

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Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM




  • [permaculture] Fwd: [grazersedge] Dexters, Mark, 05/31/2002

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