Little Cattle

[cattlecait]

Hey,

We weren't going to consider cattle for The Master Plan, but I completely forgot about the little guys!

Does anyone have any experience with Dexters or Mini Herefords?

What are the advantages to a Mini Hereford versus a standard beef animal? Do they end up being more efficient?

Do they have Mini Highlands? That would make my day!

How much milk does a Dexter typically yield? I'd only want one or two for milk for the family and to make cheese, but if it's still a ton I might just go with a goat.

 

[jason_mazzy]

I have seen mini highlands. google em!

 

[Ariel301]

I don't know about the feed-to-milk efficiency of mini cattle, but a good quality dairy goat will be more feed efficient than a regular size dairy cow. My biggest eating goats consume about a total of 6 pounds of food per day (4-5 pounds hay and 1-2 pounds grain) and produce around a gallon a day each.

 

[CAMilkmaid]

Hey,

Does anyone have any experience with Dexters or Mini Herefords?

How much milk does a Dexter typically yield? I'd only want one or two for milk for the family and to make cheese, but if it's still a ton I might just go with a goat.

I raise Dexters and love them! There is a huge range in the amount of milk they produce. I leave the calves with their dams so that I don't have to milk on a schedule. I take about a gallon on the days that I milk and let the calf take the rest. Some of the high yielding Dexters produce 3 gallons or so.

Kim

 

[cattlecait]

Hmmm...THAT I think I could handle! Hubby tells me just to get goats, but I miss my cows (and plan to have goats anyway whether I have a cow or not, he doesn't know that yet.)

 

[jason_mazzy]

I say go with Zebus! ultra lean beef, great tasting, and 1 gallon a milk a day!!!!! There are some good deals floating around these days for some fresh blood.

 

[cattlecait]

I say go with Zebus! ultra lean beef, great tasting, and 1 gallon a milk a day!!!!! There are some good deals floating around these days for some fresh blood.

I don't know about Zebus! They look so silly, I can't take them seriously!

 

[jason_mazzy]

They look like cows to me, in fact the worlds oldest cows to me. I know what you mean though, we are so used to what european type cows look like that we forget until a few hundred years ago most cows looked like Zebu. I'm still hopin to raise one up as a miniature buckin bull. Teach my lil man how to ride a brahma!

 

[freedom1]

We have a Dexter bull and he's a sweetheart. You can walk right up to him and scratch his back. We bought him for low birth weight calves on our first time heifers.

There are several breeders who are breeding for milk in the Dexters. Look at dextercattle.org or purebreddextercattle.org. (Sorry I couldn't make it an active link. Since I'm a new member, I can't have any URLs in my post. )There is information on the breed as well as the milking side of it on both of these sites. One thing to consider is that the Dexter is a horned cow breed from way back. There are a lot of polled lines now, so you should be able to locate a polled cow if that is what you prefer. There are certain lines that are supposed to be better for milking. Depending on where you are located, there might be a Dexter association in your area.

I like the Dexter breed and would love to have more when we get situated a bit better.

T ~

 

[TheSheepGirl]

Nice to hear about the dexters. Mom wants to purchase a few.