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03/06/10, 08:46 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Saskatchewan
Posts: 1,477
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Maybe she IS bred....
Well I posted a while ago about how I was certain my dexter X wasn't bred because she appeared to be in heat. Well I watched her and she never did it again. Now she is starting to get pretty darn round and I have had two cattle producers tell me that they are pretty sure she is bred and my smaller one might be bred too. They are both due the end of March. Supposedly.
My life was basically a shambles last summer when I brought them home and I never built any sort of corral and I don't have a chute or anything so I can't even catch them to find out for sure if they are bred or not (palpation or blood test). So it really is just wait and see.
The bigger ones bag 'seems' to be getting a bit bigger. I couldn't see her teats from a distance before and now I can, but when I get down and look at it it doesn't have a round shape or anything. How long before calving do they start to bag up anyway??
To me she is most certainly bigger than she was 2 months ago, but not big enough to have a calf in there. But I suppose if she is 1/4 angus and the bull was purebred dexter the calf could be pretty small compared to her. The only cattle I have ever really spent any time with were Herfords and they seemed MASSIVE just before they calved, but we did have to pull almost every calf the heifers had.  Pulling calves isn't common with dexters, right?
Is there anyone out there with pictures of dexter cows/heifers a month or so away from calving that I can compare to? I can try and get pics of mine tomorrow.
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03/06/10, 09:15 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 922
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Oh boy do I have pictures... I wondered about my Dexter last year right up until her bag filled up so heavy and I watched and waited.. maybe 3 wks, thinking she'd calve any day... I'll share a few pictures in a minute, let me load some to photobucket.
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Jennifer, Chase and the whole Darby clan
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03/06/10, 09:21 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Saskatchewan
Posts: 1,477
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Oh goodness. I just found the papers I got with them and I know they were bred within a week of each other and it says the smaller one was bred on July 6th. Well, that makes them due around the middle of April, doesn't it? I guess she could have said 'end of march, start of april,' and all I heard was 'end of march'.
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03/06/10, 09:24 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 922
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this was maybe 3 wks or so before she calved...
and this one was the day or two before...
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Jennifer, Chase and the whole Darby clan
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03/06/10, 09:25 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 922
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here she is the night she calved 
and the sweet little one..
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Jennifer, Chase and the whole Darby clan
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03/06/10, 09:26 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 922
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Can't wait to hear of "baby days" at your place... do share pictures!
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Jennifer, Chase and the whole Darby clan
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03/06/10, 09:31 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Saskatchewan
Posts: 1,477
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HOLY!!!!!!!!!! Thats a bag! And here I was worried I wouldn't be able to tell when she was bagging up. I had no idea a bag could get that big. How old is she?
BUT...my cow (I guess she is a cow..?) is at least that fat. Well looks it anyway.
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03/06/10, 09:37 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 922
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Spring was I think around 5 yrs old then? it was her third calf.
Yeah, I was pretty sure she was just going to bust (no pun intended)!!!! LOL
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Jennifer, Chase and the whole Darby clan
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03/06/10, 09:39 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Saskatchewan
Posts: 1,477
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Quote:
Originally Posted by darbyfamily
Spring was I think around 5 yrs old then? it was her third calf.
Yeah, I was pretty sure she was just going to bust (no pun intended)!!!! LOL
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That really looks like it hurts! oh dear. I imagine mine wont bag up so dramatically because she only had one calf before and it froze at birth unfortunately. So she has never been sucked on. She is three this year.
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03/07/10, 05:48 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,002
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Darbyfamily, your cow sure is a pretty one.
Jackie, we have 2 Dexters that don't really show any signs of freshening until the day before. The other ones start showing different signs at about 2 weeks.
I've read others say that some cows don't really bag up until they are calving.
Thankfully, we've not had to pull any calves here. I know it can happen, but I do believe in general, Dexter calves don't need any help coming into this world.
Check out this link. A few pages into it there are some great pics from the back of a cow showing the calf at the side and how it changes preparing for calving. The cow isn't a Dexter, but a couple of ours follow along the same way as most breeds probably do.
http://familycow.proboards.com/index...y&thread=30075
prairiegirl...........waiting and watching 3 Dexters due soon.
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03/07/10, 07:56 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: warren county,ohio
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Oh, thank goodness! When my cow bagged up like that, all I could think of was mastitis! If you can believe it, hers was about a third larger than that!! Nice to know that it's normal! And it stayed like that for about 4 monthes. Last years calf is still nursing (I thought she'd dried up monthes ago), but mom's 15 so I guess she knows what she's doing...karla
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03/07/10, 08:37 AM
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 17,225
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The big teats is a genetic flaw common in angus. I know it is hard to cull in a small herd but you really shouldn't keep any breeding stock out of cows like this.
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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
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Libertarindependent
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03/07/10, 09:14 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: MO
Posts: 914
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tinknal
The big teats is a genetic flaw common in angus. I know it is hard to cull in a small herd but you really shouldn't keep any breeding stock out of cows like this.
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The cow in the picture is pure dexter but I have seen it in another dexter as well, so maybe it is common within that breed as well.
I know that you don't own the cow anymore darbyfamily but that is a terrible udder/teats and those genetics shouldn't be promoted.
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Rachel K
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Parents to Danial, Jacob, Isaac, Clara, Sarah Jo, and twins Emma and Anna born 12/18/2009!
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03/07/10, 10:59 AM
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 17,225
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Quote:
Originally Posted by matt_man
The cow in the picture is pure dexter but I have seen it in another dexter as well, so maybe it is common within that breed as well.
I know that you don't own the cow anymore darbyfamily but that is a terrible udder/teats and those genetics shouldn't be promoted.
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LOL, need to lean a yard stick against her to show scale..........
She does look angus though.
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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi
Libertarindependent
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03/07/10, 06:35 PM
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Udderly Happy!
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 2,830
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darbyfamily,
Did you have any trouble handmilking those handles on your Dexter Cow? I had an older Jersey one time that ballooned up like that on her front teats and she was a "handful" to milk. It wasn't too bad though after you got a little out and relieved some of the pressure and edema.
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Francismilker
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16
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03/07/10, 07:30 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Saskatchewan
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