I have only limited experience with cows, we are currentley bottle feeding a Holstein bull before he goes to market ( son's project). I would like a small family milk cow and have decided on a Dexter.My question is should I buy a weaned calf or should I buy a very young calf and bottle feed. I want the enjoyment of raising her around my family and realise it will be a long project before we get her to breeding age, but by then hopefully she will be very tame. With my limited experience will I be able to cope? I've had goats before and we have other animals,but will Dexter breeders sell to a novice? I've only talked to one breeder close to me and he said they breed for beef,would a heifer calf from him be suitable or should it be from a breeder who breeds for milk. I don't need lots of milk, we are not a huge family. Any advice would be appreciated.

-- Carol Koller (ckoller@netsync.net), July 17, 2001

Answers

Carol, may I but in with a follow up? I don't know anything about Dexters. What is their appearance, temperment and weight? Does anyone have experience with Canadienne dairy cattle?

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), July 17, 2001.

Hi, Carol. I don't know anything about Dexters in particular, but even a beef cow gives quite a lot of milk when you are talking about just providing for your family. A growing baby calf sucks down more milk than you can imagine (well, you know, since you have the bull calf already), so if you do the milking instead, you get all of that milk that the calf would have had. As far as breeding for beef next to breeding for milk, because of what I just mentioned above, I wouldn't be too concerned about buying from a beef breeder. Moving a herd one way or another towards beef or towards milk production is not a quick thing at all. It takes generations and cow generations are several years long at least, and many of the brood cows in the herd are going to be there for years, thus slowing the drift towards beef or dairy down. So unless the herd has been established for 20+ years and has been diligently culled for the traits, it won't be too different from the cows that started the herd. As for age of calf, I don't think there's any real need to get a newborn calf,unless you really want the experience of raising the calf from the word go. A weaned animal will probably tame down quite quickly and would get you to family milk that much sooner. If I were doing it, I'd ask the breeder to pick a calf for you that came from a cow with a gentle disposition. Disposition is a trait that carries through from mother to daughter quite strongly IMO, so if the mother is gentle the calf has a good chance of being calm, too, no matter what the bull was like. Good luck. Sounds like you're going to have fun. :)

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), July 17, 2001.

Well I DO know Dexters, and I'd advise you to get one either as young as you can deal with, or one that has already been handled alot. Dexters are notorious for their independent nature, and unless you get em real young and work with em daily, your chances of getting a sweet maleable milk cow out of her are slim.

Good advice from Jennifer about the disposition of the mom; try to pick one from a gentle, friendly cow; also choose one that has reasonably long legs: its too difficult to milk short-legged Dexters. Any good Dexter will give you enough milk for your family.

Good luck; they are wonderful animals!

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), July 17, 2001.

When I walked thru the breeder's herd of Dexters, I was really surprised. I had helped herd 'real' cattle, but these Dexters were very different. Quite quiet. And soooo much shorter than me! -G- (I'm a hair under 5 feet.) The cattle are a business and not handled much like I had planned to do with a pet. The breeder walked up to a bull, put a halter on him, put some medicine in his eye, took off the halter, and walked away. No shutes, no cowboys with ropes, no nothin'! Talk about a mellow breed! -LOL-

I got a Dexter calf when he was 2 months old. I had planned to bottle feed originally, but saw that it wasn't needed. V-e-r-y easy to train and with long retention. I've had my steer for 10 years; he rides and drives. He can go months without being worked and when we do work, it's like he just did it yesterday.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), July 18, 2001.