Tell me about Dexter cattle

[Cattledrawer]

Does anyone have experience with Dexter cattle? I've heard they can be stubborn, but are good mothers. I'm not getting a cow anytime soon, but I like the small sized cattle: Mini Herefords, Dexters. I was thinking cattle or a mini donkey. Thanks~

 

[mguzo]

Tagging on here. Thanks for the post. Looking for manageable, utilitarian, dual-purpose for a newbie with a young family. Also interested in hearing herd size suggestions. Have 10 acres pasture but will just be raising them for family consumption. Get 2 heifers and 1 bull/steer? 1 of each?

Bought an angus/dexter and had it butchered. Would be more than happy to keep the freezer stocked with that!

 

[goodhors]

You may want to wander thru the older posts, both on the Cattle Breeding and Everything forums.

There has been a LOT of good information shared. The plus and minus sides to having Dexters,
Dexter crosses, horns or not horned. There are now polled Dexters available, so you don't
HAVE to do horns. I don't like horned cattle and consider them dangerous, no horns
allowed here. But removing horns or doing the calf horns is no fun either. So any polled
models are much more desireable for my needs.

If you are not an experienced cattle person, it does pay to look at a LOT of cattle, to
see what the good ones look like. Fair time here, so you can view many in a short time to
learn things. Our Fairs have the ribbons above the animals, so you see how they win or not.
We visited a Dexter farm with very nice cattle, prize winners at even advanced ages as cows.
A multi-show winner of a bull, who also was an interesting personality. All the older cattle were VERY
friendly to strangers, willing to stand around to be petted. Owners pointed out good features
to observe, what made one better than another. Very helpful to us when we were learning,
so a nice introduction to Dexter breeders.

Your eyes learn by looking, so do try to view cattle in numbers. For beef, the same build is
considered excellent with just a few breed differences. Flat back, square shapes give the best
meat returns. Not bony hipped like dairy cows. Doesn't matter size of the animal, good is
good, bad built is bad because it doesn't support the animal well or allow the meat production
you really want.

The place I purchased my heifer at, had a young steer 14 months, who was EXCELLENT. He was
ready right then, for the freezer. I bet if he had gone to a cattle show, the handler would have been
first or among the top 5 overall beef animals shown, if Judge could get over the small size! He was just so good
looking. A real credit to his breeding and feeding.

Gender of the animal will certainly influence how they act. Heifers and cows are going to be a
bit hormone driven to find a bull when they are in season. Bulls kept away from cows may be
difficult, but you probably don't want calves coming year around either! Steers have been
the most even tempered in my experience. But we handle our cattle daily, EACH ONE, so that
handling, being obedient, is part of their routine to getting grain and locked in at night for protection.
Most folks don't take that time, animals are "more lively" when they do want to handle them.

Cattle LOVE routine, can be helpful in handling, or disruptive when you need to change something.
They can easily be taught things, get creative in ways you don't want! That is just cattle, not any
special breed. I think the females are quicker to learn, so be careful what you teach them!
Laying your "hands on" the animals every day makes a big difference.

 

[hilltopdextercattle]

We have Dexters and we really enjoy them. I'm surprised that you have heard they are stubborn. Most of the information on the breed as a whole uses their docile temperament as a selling point. That being said, we did buy an older cow that wasn't mean, she just stayed stirred up and you couldn't pen her. She would see you coming and run. Once we finally got her penned, we hauled her to the sale barn. We still have her heifer though and she is a sweetheart. I'm sure much of the old cows attitude was from how she was handled throughout her life. We were her fourth owners and the people that we bought her from bought her as a novelty and weren't cow people.
They are good mothers. We've had no problems except for last year we had a first calf heifer calve a month early and we lost the calf. She calved on August 1 and we were in 100+ temps and a horrible drought, so I blame the conditions for that one. She just calved a month ago and gave us a beautiful little heifer with no problems.
We are members of the ADCA, American Dexter Cattle Association. Their website is http://www.dextercattle.org You can go the the website, click on the Pedigree tab, you can put your state in the box and click search. It will bring up animals in your state.
Before you decide on Dexters, you should know about PHA(Pulmonary Hypoplasia with Anasarca) and Chondrodysplasia. There is information on the registry site and you can also do a Google search.
We are in the process of testing and reporting all our cows for both. We don't think we have any PHA but we do have some Chondro carriers. Most people are avoiding the breeding issues associated with both by breeding their cows to a PHA and Chondro free bull. Two out of three of our bulls are PHA and Chondro free. We were assured the other was free when we bought him, but we are going to test him anyway. If any of our cows show up as positive for PHA, we can still breed them to our bulls but there is a 50/50 chance of the calf having PHA. All PHA calves would be beefed. The beef is excellant by the way. We could still breed the cows, but when the time came, they would be beefed also.
I hope I didn't cause any confusion. I always say that I'm a better talker than I am a writer,lol.

 

[Cattledrawer]

Thank you all

 

[hilltopdextercattle]

I have wanted to get Jersey Giants for several years. I'll have to head over to the coop and look you up.