corrientes versus dexter

I never said that the feed SHOULD be restricted, I said that the size of the mature cow is determined by the forage available when she was growing. So, there is really no need to get a small cow to fit a pasture that had limited feed like the OP was trying to do (if I read it right).

I don't know what you are talking about with two herds and stunting the steers. I'm not restricting any of my cattle's feed to grow a smaller cow, I'm simply pointing out that cattle need enough feed to express their potential. And, smaller cows might be smaller because they have been shorted at some time in their life.

That's why I raise my own replacements, so I know how they have been fed and how they are growing. My idea of an efficient cow is one that has a calf at 24 months old, weans a healthy calf is almost exactly like every other calf on the farm each year, and weighs about 1100 lbs. at maturity on the grass and hay I can grow. I really don't care if a smaller cow might or might not wean a calf that is a higher percentage of her weight.

I agree.
I can remember buying a young bull at the same time our neighbor bought a half brother to him.
Ours matured a little over 1800 lbs. His was so much smaller that we tried to use him on some of our cows and he wasn't big enough to breed them.

I put my little Dexter bull over an Angus, two Highlands, a Devon and two Jersey cows when he was just 7 months old. Every cow settled. They had no problem reaching him.

Our cows were quite a bit bigger than those.

I think if you want fair beef or use most of the beef as hamburger these corineties will do ok as they are tough natured and small .the dexter depending on if your getting the beefy type or the milkier type a milk cow will always bring a better price if sold for a milker to a homesteder . In my opinon a angus will make surpurb beef on not to much more feed than the others and if you want to sell the calf you can get top prices at the market or sell ing derectly to the bucher .with the spichilty breeds you will have to deal with a finicky market driven by the current fads if you start fooling with low grade moungrel stock you can spend a lifetime trying to breed up and still have mixed stock .its better to place your money on a sure bet than gambleing and trying to play the market .if you can keep 2 regesterd angus cows insted of 4 others AI to the best bulls is cheep and you can sell 1. Calf male or female for more than most others any where any time .

Thanks for all the ideas, It sounds like crossing corriente's with an angus bull makes the most sense to me as far as not having to worry about selling off the calves. But then the point that someone made about just buying some crossbred heifers makes a lot of sense. My biggest problem is that I don't want a small herd or cows standing around wanting to be fed all the time and not being willing to go hunt up something to eat. I have enough pasture to accommodate a few head of cows along with my goat herd. I was just thinking corriente because they are known to forage for a lot of there feed and not hang out at the round bale feeder all day.

Cattle aren't stupid, they are only going to be standing around waiting to be fed if you "baby" them and feed them all the time. If you have enough stockpiled grass available during the winter, you can get any breed of cattle to go out and hunt up something to eat.

If you start putting out hay too early, even corrientes are going to start to stand around expecting to be fed. I'll bet that corrientes are smart enough to eat a bale of hay or a bag of cubes if it is available.

I've got a herd of Black Angus cows out on a dormant native grass pasture right now that only get a couple of pounds of cubes every other day (so they get enough protein) and I'm not planning to feed any hay until at least January.

If you have a burning desire to get Dexters or corrientes, then get them. But, you don't need to get them if you just want to have a low-input cattle herd.

So you are saying that I can get any of them to pretty much forage on their own and not stand around the feeder. I keep round bales available for the goats but they only come up to the sheds when it is really raining and rarely eat on them yet. Thanks for the info, it gives me something to think about.

A chondrodysplasia (short) Dexter will almost always be more efficient than other Dexters. Due to their dwarfism genetics, they are not as active as non-chondro Dexters.

When bred to a non-chondro Dexter bull (which should be done to eliminate the "bulldog" aborted calf possibility) 50% of her calves will be chondro carriers, and 50% non-carriers. What this gives you when you have a non-carrier is a calf that outgrows her mother by a considerable amount, and can wean at 7 months at 70% of his mother's mature weight. For a carrier calf, they tend to mature more quickly (4-6 months is typical) and lay down fat sooner so that they can be processed earlier.

So if you are looking for a model for efficient production using low inputs (without regard to consistent breeding which really isn't that critical to somebody using it for themselves) there isn't much of anything that can match a chondro carrier Dexter.

Regardless of what you get, I think it's more important to stock to capacity before you attempt to upgrade. http://agriculturalinsights.com/full...bout-genetics/

Goats are browsers. They will stop by the hay feeder when needed on their rounds but a cow will camp out an eat a whole bale of hay if its there. Why go work for food when its right there.