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  • From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Dairy farm in winter/Dexter cattle
  • Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 07:43:51 -0600

The author is a seasonal dairy farmer in NY state, very knowledgeable.
M
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 10:38:03 -0500
From: Linda Graves <gravesfarm@madbbs.com>
Subject: Re: [grazersedge] Re: Dexter calf
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At 03:54 AM 12/4/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>Linda, she is adorable! Doesn't look like 47#!!! How many Dexters
>do you have? Do you milk them? I would be interested in knowing
>more about how you incorporate the Dexters into your herd,
>comparisons, etc. I know you're busy, but anything you care to share
>would be appreciated. I think they're great cows, but I've never had
>any other breed really. We don't milk ours, but their calves sure do
>well on them. Thanks for posting the photo!

Gale- so far, they're an experiment! I'm sure you *could* milk them, but
I'd have to be pretty desperate to do it! My back doesn't bend that far
easily ;-)
We got interested them through conversations I had with an "internet
friend" I'd never heard of them before that, or seen one. They held the
National Show and Sale about 300 miles from us in June of 2000, and we
went. Fell in love with the dun cow who has more personality than any cow
I've ever seen, and bought her. An old friend of DH's was at the sale and
happened to have 4 Dexters for sale at his farm. We picked the best of
them, a springing 2 year old out of a 14 year old cow which was still
there, and was also springing. Unfortunately, they were all bred to a Texas
Longhorn bull :-(
So far we've seen no evidence that this breed produces bull calves <g>
What amazes me about them is their incredible growth rate for the first 6
months. The older calf in that pic wasn't a lot bigger than this newborn at
birth. The Longhorn cross heifer we had born in June of 2000 was the same
way- we thought that she was going to be huge (partly because she was
crossed) and she was as tall as her mother at 6 months. Now, at 18 months,
she's still just as tall as her mother! And they do this strictly on good
pasture.
Our interest in them is for potential "boutique beef" sales at
sometime in the future. If a hanging half can be produced at 150# or even
less, and it is top quality beef for flavor and tenderness, I believe that
there will be a market for the halves. Our vet, upon spotting that first
dun cow (she's VERY beef type, as you can probably see in some of the
pics), spent an hour extolling her virtues, almost all of which he saw as
"portion control"! Since he'd just lost almost 40 pounds by using "portion
control" in his diet, he had a great interest in a cow which would produce
a sirloin steak that didn't weigh 1 1/2#.
Their main drawbacks so far seem to be needing to renovate all our
fences to add another wire on the bottom, and replacing all our single wire
and slinky wire gates, as they walk right under them. It's not a great
problem, as they seemingly figured out the entire farm in the first week,
and never actually GO anywhere when they get "loose". They just find the
closest lush patch of feed and enjoy themselves. When they're full, they'll
either go back to where they were supposed to be, or walk down to the barn
and lay in the driveway in front of the doors until someone lets them in.
We weren't real sure about keeping horned cattle, especially at first.
In fact, part of our reason for trying the Dexters as compared to Scotch
Highlands was the fact that polled or dehorned cattle aren't discriminated
against in the Dexter breed. However, they've proven to be very docile, and
although they USE the horns, they don't ABUSE them. And since we do have
coyotes, I feel better knowing that the mothers of those dinky little
calves have something to protect them with.
We'll see where they take us. At the moment we're just enjoying
playing with the little herd while we make a living off the dairy.

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] Dairy farm in winter/Dexter cattle, Mark, 12/05/2002

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