Mini Cattle

[crookedoak]

What is the best mini cattle breeds? Is it better to go registered or not reg.?

[MO_cows]

Depends what you want to do with them.

[crookedoak]

I want a dual purpose. Is pure bred better or mixed?

[maysorum]

I'm also interested in miniature cows... Tagging along.

[MO_cows]

The mini breeds I know of are Jersey, Zebu, Lowline (Angus) and Hereford. There are some other mini cattle out there but they appear to have been bred for extremely tiny size and cutesy markings and not any production qualities. Dexters are smaller framed and so are some Jersey lines. Dairy cattle are actually "dual purpose" because the excess males make beef, just not as much beef per head and they take longer to finish.

[linn]

My vote is for Dexters. They were origianlly a dual purpose breed. Many Dexter breeders are concentrating on beef rather than dual purpose now. Make sure to check the background of any Dexter heifer or cow to see if they have Woodmagic, Lucifer of Knotting, Brambledel Redberry Prince, Hillview Morris or Trillium Cluny in the pedigree. These are all milking lines. Ask if the is a carrier of Chondrodysplasia and Pulmonary Hypoplasia with Anasarca.

[crookedoak]

What about the highland cattle??

[MO_cows]

I don't have any firsthand knowledge of Highlands. But I do know that I wouldn't want to milk a cow that hairy, it seems like it would make it a lot tougher to be sanitary.

[crookedoak]

I think the highlands are cute, but I would be afraid of them having a heat stroke down here in Alabama.

[FEF]

Originally Posted by crookedoak

What is the best mini cattle breeds? Is it better to go registered or not reg.?

What are you going to do with them? If you're just growing them for their meat and company, being registered won't matter.

If you are planning to sell some for breeding purposes, the papers will probably be more important. Some people say they don't want the papers, but come back later and ask for them. So we've found it's much simpler to transfer the papers. If they don't want them, they can trash them, but the animal is no longer in my name. And if they come back later, they can't complain because you didn't give them the papers. But it only costs $5 to transfer papers in my breed. You'd have to balance the costs of registering and transferring papers to see which is best for you.

As for breeds, again it depends on what you're going to do with them. I'd go with the Lowline. They aren't so minature that the sale barn will kill you if they wind up there....and some of them probably will. If you pay attention you can find some productive herds of Lowlines. A lot of the really small "breeds" are not productive animals. They're conservation pieces. And that's fine if that's what you're looking for.

[JJFarmer]

I personally would LOVE a miniature Jersey or two. But then I have a handful of dairy goats so a Jersey would fit in nicely.

[genebo]

In Dexters, the Windridge line makes the best dual purpose cattle. Beefy enough to satisfy your meat hunger and give enough milk to raise a beef calf and let you have a gallon, too.

I think that all of the Windridge Dexters which have been tested are A2/A2 for beta casein in their milk. Most of them have been tested.