permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

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