A great cow for the small homestead....Dexter Cows

Posted on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 02:04

I started reading about these cows last year.  If we ever get in a situation to have a cow this is the one for us.  Not only are they useful for meat but also for milk.  They provide less milk than a jersey, which would be way too much for our family.  Goats would probably be perfect for our milk consumption needs but my children hate goat milk.  The Dexter cow is the next best thing.....

Dexters are one of the smallest breeds of Cattle and are a dual purpose breed believed to have originated in Ireland. The first American imports of Dexter Cattle arrived in 1905 and the registry was founded in 1911.

The American Dexter possesses many desirable characteristics. It is a very hardy animal, thriving in both hot and cold climates with little difficulty. It is tractable and easily trained, either as a pasture animal (kind on fencing) or a show animal (great with children and young adults). It is a thrifty animal and capable of thriving on a half acre per head of good pasture, given the typical Dexter's small size. Registered cows measure between 36 and 42 inches in shoulder height at three years of age, and weigh approximately 750 pounds. Bulls are slightly larger at 38 to 44 inches shoulder height, and weigh in around 1000 pounds. The breed comes in three colors, predominately black, but also in red and dun.

Dexters produce both meat and milk. The meat has a delightful unique taste and the cuts are small in size in comparison to the larger breeds. It is ideally suited to a boutique meat market or the home freezer. For their size Dexters are prolific milkers. They can easily rear two calves at a time and have the potential to be used for commercial dairy purposes.

Their size and versatility makes them an ideal smallholders cow.

You can read the rest of the article here.  Also type in Dexter cow in your search engine.

Blessings,

Trixi

Untitled Comment

Posted by HuberHof on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 03:23 - Link

Thanks for posting the info on the Dexter's. We would like to get a milk cow but were thinking a Jersey because of the high cream content that they are supposed to give. But we don't really need the amount of milk that she would give : ) The dexter sounds interesting though since it is a smaller breed and I found it very neat that they were considered to be like oxen.
Blessings,
HuberHof

Untitled Comment

Posted by borderling on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 03:26 - Link

I have wanted to get Dexters for more than two years now. They sound like the perfect cows. There are some people involved with our 4-H that raise them. The cost is more than we can afford right now. Maybe next summer......
From Glory Farm

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