Dexter for milking info?

InHisName · #1 09/03/10, 07:17 AM

Totally new to milk cows- and doing research. Going to look at some Dexter heifer yearlings today. Found a "questions to ask" in Encyclopedia of Country Living"- Does someone here have Dexter cattle to give advice?
We live in a rugged, cold part of NE Wa- I need to know how much to feed them. A friend with a Dexter milk cow says she gives hers 15 lbs alfalfa per day- the owner says more. These are registerable, but not- have not been tamed at all. (but the owner says the nature of Dexters are sweet)
With my milk goats, I can milk one time, then let the kids stay with the goat if necessary- or if I have to go someplace can leave the kids on the mom with no problem. Can I do that with a Dexter?
I will be hand milking. What questions should I ask?

Callieslamb · #2 09/03/10, 07:53 AM

I don't have Dexters. But I did research them before buying a milk cow

What to ask:
Are these from a line of milking dexters?
How much does the OWNER say they need to be fed?
Can I tame this cow without losing my teeth?
How much milk does this heifer's mother produce?
Have the owner ever milked a Dexter?

With most milk cows, you can milk once a day. Irratic milking doesn't let the cow know how much milk to produce. You can do it you will not have an amount of milk that you can depend on getting if you leave her for a week or so without milking.

My neighbor has dexters - he thinks they eat as much as his other cows. He's having a hard time selling them right now.

InHisName · #3 09/03/10, 08:29 AM

Thanks, Callie.
The owners are elderly, and do not milk them at all. I am planning on trying to get close to these animals and see if I can get my hands on them, look/ feel the udder, just see how well they do with hands on, you know. I really do not want more than 2 gallons per day-
If the cows are skittish, can they still be tamed? They are polled.....

Trisha in WA · #4 09/03/10, 09:39 AM

InHisName, there is a couple near us that milks Dexters. I'll email or call you with their info.
I have a story that sounds just like yours.....I bought a Dexter cow from this old gal who said the herd had been her late husbands and that he could pet them and feed them apples etc, but that they were never milked. So, I bought one of her cows thinking it should be fairly easy to tame. They had to run her through a shoot to get her in the trailer. The minute she was out of the trailer she ran through my fence! I had decent fencing too. Finally, we rounded that crazy cow up (3 doors down) and got her back in the trailer, I took her back the next day.
Never again would I buy a grown cow that had not been milked. If you got a very young heifer, then I think you would have a very good chance.

Tilly · #5 09/03/10, 12:38 PM

We have milking Dexters. My very milky 9yo cow gives 1 1/2 gallons a day once a day while raising her calf, she usually gives me a bit over 3 gallons after weaning and switching to 2x a day. She is a very high producing cow for a dexter. The other cow is in her first lactation and gives 3/4 gallon once a day with her calf on her. During the winter, if there is no grazing due to snow, one 80 pound bale will feed my bull, steer calf, and both cows for one day. Both cows are prego during the winter. Everyone comes through winter in very good condition.

We started out with a wild mamma cow and her 6 month old heifer. The heifer was very easy to work with after a few weeks of grain and gentle handling. She is now 2 1/2 and a very sweet cow. Mamma was horned so we got rid of her.

Dexters are very gentle, but even my milkers who are handled every day are suspicious of strangers. Keep that in mind when you go looking. They will not have udders that you can judge by yet, look at their mother's udder or better yet their paternal grandmother.

We have left to go on vacation, leaving the calf with mom instead of separating at night, and had no problems with the younger milk cow, the heavy producer we have to have someone milk her.

Any other questions, ask away!!

Tilly

linn · #6 09/03/10, 01:18 PM

I too have Dexters. If you can get a young heifer, she would be easier to gentle. Keep her in a small lot, with another gentle cow if possible. Start by talking to her and work up to touching her, then stroking her and then brushing her while she is eating. This is going to take some time. My heifer was very shy when we got her and wouldn't let me near her. By gradually gaining her confidence, I was finally able to halter her and tie her when she was eating grain. She is now the gentlest of cows and will let me walk up to her and pet her in the pasture.
Not all Dexters are equal when it comes to dairyness. A first time calver will probably only give enough for the calf, but a with each calving will give more milk until she reaches six years of age. My Dexter gives me a gallon per milking plus raises her calf during her peak production months. I figure she is giving over 3 gallons per day. In the winter, production goes down because there is no green grass.
Ask about her pedigree, if she is registerable, they should know. Bulls from the Woodmagic line, Lucifer of Knotting, Brambledel Redberry Prince, Wee Gaelic Mr. O'Toole, Hillview Morris and Glencara Finerty are all bulls to look for in the pedigree.

InHisName · #7 09/03/10, 05:32 PM

Thank you for that information. Went and looked today, they are very healthy, calm, and the bred yearling heifer came right up to me (no touch, though), and she has a sister for sale, born this year. Need some help on price- they want $1200 for the bred yearling- $550 for the one to be bred next year. The height is nice- all polled. I can breed back to their bull- a Dexter- low line cross. (that price includes papers) Debating if waiting a year is worth the money saved- can someone tell me if that is the going amount, or should I keep looking? Can't say on how much of a dairy cow they'll be.....

linn · #8 09/03/10, 07:42 PM

Well, that seems a little hight to me. Why don't you check out the Dexter forum. They have a "for sale" section. You could get an idea of what was the going price from there.

http://dextercattle.proboards.com/index.cgi

Trisha in WA · #9 09/03/10, 08:02 PM

Yes, ask to see the papers and look for those bulls. Lucifer of Knotting and Wee Gaelic Mr. O'Toole are 2 bulls that I recognize as being good dairy bulls and O'Toole semen is hard to come by these days.
Monica Dexter is a great resource for WA. http://www.rdoubled.com/ I talked to her at great length several times when I was shopping for a family milk cow. I decided to go with a Jersey, but I bred her to a Dexter twice (neither time took, so I never got the cross I was looking for). As for the price, I paid $1200 for the wild range cow I bought, but that was probably 6 years ago or so, and that was the going rate back then. I know that family milk cows are hard to come by and are pricey...especially in WA.

genebo · #10 09/03/10, 08:14 PM

Some things that add to the value of a basic heifer are:

Full blooded, with registration papers, with the breed registry.

Gentleness.

Halter trained.

Trained to milk.

Has been milked before.

Tested for all conditions that may affect the animal.

The heifer you described has none of these. Each of them costs the breeder in time, effort or money. This heifer is worth the standard going rate for a bred heifer.

Being told that the heifer "isn't registered, but could be", has gotten lots of people into a mess. Registration of a fullblooded Dexter is easy and costs just $20. Breeders are supposed to not only have the heifer registered before the sale, but are urged to pay the transfer fee.

The only Dexters that can be registered are those that have two registered Dexters as parents. If the heifer you're looking at is the Dexter-Lowline cross bull, then it most certainly can't be registered.

The fact that the heifer is polled leads me to suspect that the Dexter-Lowline cross is the sire. That bull would be polled, due to it's Angus ancestry and half of his calves would also be polled, due to Angus ancestry.

Being bred to that bull means that her calves can't be registered. The Dexter registries won't accept any cross-breds and the only crosses that the Lowline registry accepts are those that were sired by a fullblooded Lowline bull.

The price you quoted should buy you a nice fullblooded Dexter heifer, already registered and bred to a registered bull. For just a few bucks more, you should be able to buy one that was gentle and at least partly trained to milk.

I'd hold out for a better deal.

Never buy a milk cow that you haven't visited and gotten close to. Hand milking will put you in close contact with the cow every day. You wouldn't want to buy one you couldn't get along with.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

matt_man · #11 09/03/10, 08:56 PM

The dexters I have had experience with were not sweet - not saying there aren't some that are. The one we milked for awhile would just assume take you out for even looking in her direction. It wasn't worth the gallon of milk a day we got from her.

I wouldn't buy a range cow or heifer and expect her to be a good family milk cow prospect.

InHisName · #12 09/03/10, 09:43 PM

will look into this further= thanks for the info= will keep looking into it....

Patt · #13 09/03/10, 11:12 PM

I agree with Genebo, that price is way too high for what you are getting. And "can be registered" sadly doesn't mean much at all.

InHisName · #14 09/04/10, 07:46 AM

I do want to say the owner brought all the papers for me to look at when I was there, but I did not at the time, not knowing what to look for. Trisha gave me some good info concerning the lines that would be in our area- so will call and get that information she has already offered. Papers are just not so important here-
I was reading a cattle book last night, it talked about their "flight space" - how close you can come to an animal before they are afraid of you- and for not being handled much we were right there almost touching them.
Has anyone ever gentled a cow to milking point one that has not been handled?
The young one born this spring might be a better option, as it would give me a year to work with her. It may be worth that year to have her tame, halter broke, etc-
Just a note, there are not many milk cows in our area at all.

Creamers · #15 09/04/10, 07:53 AM

Too high - here I can buy a handled, paper in hand Dexter cow and an her calf (also registered) in a pair for $1,200.

linn · #16 09/04/10, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InHisName

Has anyone ever gentled a cow to milking point one that has not been handled?
The young one born this spring might be a better option, as it would give me a year to work with her. It may be worth that year to have her tame, halter broke, etc-
Just a note, there are not many milk cows in our area at all.

Yes, my heifer had never been worked with outside of rounding her up with the other cattle. She was a two-year-old, expecting her first calf when DH bought her for my Christmas present. As I said in a previous post, we put her in a small lot with some feeder calves. It was a slow continuous process in gentling her. At first she wouldn't even come to the feeder with the other calves, but when she got a taste of grain, she started eating with them. I just started by trying to get close to her while she was eating, (this took a week or so), then progressed to touching her and so on. If these cows are gentle enough to come up to you, then the process shouldn't take long until you can touch them. A small area is the key in gentling an animal and slow, pains-taking steps in gaining their confidence.
Just a note, there are some polled Dexter bulls, Circle H Frederick is one.

http://www.pdca-pedigree.org/ainfo.php?aid=200185

InHisName · #17 09/04/10, 08:10 AM

Thanks, linn- I had not read those posts, so glad to hear it can be done. As far as price, there is a milking 3 year old registed Dexter today on Craigslist, no calf, but bred- for $2000. I think it is an area thing- to drive and get one to save $200 would not be wise. http://spokane.craigslist.org/grd/1935571886.html Other than the scams, Jerseys, I think are about the same.

kmorisett · #18 09/04/10, 10:18 PM

Some other thoughts based on my Dexter experience. . .

Teats are really different from one Dexter to the other. One of mine had long teats that you had to squeeze really hard to milk, and one of mine has really short (2-finger type teats) that are so easy to squeeze milk out of with the lightest pressure. So, since you will be handmilking, I just thought I would mention that different Dexters can be really different to milk.

The price sounds fair compared to pricing of the same around here. Your geographic area really makes a difference in what is a fair price.

I milked a Dexter that was friendly and trusting from the get go, but she was quite crabby about milking, and I milked a cow that distrusted me and everyone else, but she was pretty easy to milk, oddly enough. One thing I did in the beginning was to keep the calf between me and her back leg while she got used to me hanging out and milking. I also found it easier to use the calf to stimulate letdown that way also.