Dexter Cow with little or no pasture?

[Panther]

I'd like to get a Dexter cow & calf, but we have very little pasture space. Is it possible to feed it solely on hay, etc.?

If so, any approximate idea on how much they eat?

[francismilker]

It is possible to feed any ruminent animal solely hay and feed. However, that's gonna equate to a lot of poop to haul away. As far as how much they eat.......I'd go with a guestimate of 3% body weight daily but you might want to talk to the experts on this one.

[goodhors]

Our Dexter was pretty economical to feed, gained well on smaller portions of hay, but I also had grazing. She preferred the grassy mix hay over the richer grass/alfalfa hay I thought she would do better on. FINE! The horses LOVED the alfalfa mix and gladly traded off the grassy hay to the Dexter.

However she was a MESSY eater, so there was always wasted hay laying on the ground. I had to shovel it up come spring to not kill the pasture grass under the piles. Lots of waste can add to the price of feeding when you can't pasture your animals. I served her portions, no free choice. Cattle waste LOTS more if fed free-choice on big bales, even using feeder rings.

And like mentioned, you will need to clean up the poop, PLUS the nasty wasted hay. It just turns to muck, draws flies and smells bad.

[copperhead46]

If you get a good grass hay with a high protein content to it she should do fine on about half a bale a day You probably need to add some 14 to 18 % cubes also, about 3 lbs a day (big coffee can)

[myersfarm]

what Copperhead says sounds good to me also.....and IF you feed what Copper head says...figure that by 365 days see what you will be investing a year plus other stuff also as in wormer...mineral...salt....will it be worth that much to keep a cow to you...that is not counting what the calf will eat if she has one

[Catalytic]

My Dexter heifer, very pregnant, has no pasture. She does have the woods to forage in during the day, but they are pretty much done for the year. She and 5 goats get about 4 rubbermaid tubs packed with hay a day and are flourishing. (To give you an idea, I bought a round bale, maybe 1200lbs back in July. 4-5 goats ate on it for a month, then I added the Dexter in August. I have about half the bale left. I'm buying 3 round bales for the winter. I do not keep the bale in the barn, we hand pull the hay off of it and take it to the animals twice a day)

[Skip]

I have two. I get a wheelbarrow full of waste each day. I feed them a small bale of hay each day, on days when I'll be busy and away from home for longer periods I give them two to keep them out of mischief. They have a block of each salt and mineral. I feed them a pot full of sweet feed with about three quarters a cup of loose mineral. For their bedding I use wood chips which I get from a local mill. An oversized garbage bag full a day during the summer works. During the winter months I probably will put in two each day. And two bales of hay each day.

Daily costs $3-6 hay, $2-4 bedding
Monthly bag of sweet feed $18
Yearly costs, bag of loose mineral $60, Mineral and salt blocks about $20 each?, dewormer $50?, add on cost of breeding cow...

[Skip]

Originally Posted by copperhead46

... You probably need to add some 14 to 18 % cubes also,...

I am always looking for treats for my girls and the feed store isn't very good with suggestions. What are these cubes? What do I ask for?

[mozarkian]

Originally Posted by goodhors

....And like mentioned, you will need to clean up the poop, PLUS the nasty wasted hay. It just turns to muck, draws flies and smells bad.

Pile that dirty hay up through winter, spring and summer, then in the fall after your garden is done spread it on your garden and let it rot down then plow it under in early spring. A few years of this will really help add to your topsoil and make it rich and loose.

[goodhors]

Originally Posted by mozarkian

Pile that dirty hay up through winter, spring and summer, then in the fall after your garden is done spread it on your garden and let it rot down then plow it under in early spring. A few years of this will really help add to your topsoil and make it rich and loose.

I don't want any stinky manure piles around the place. They make excellent insect breeding grounds, with lots more of newly hatched biting, dirty bugs annoying my animals and ME. And while the piles do turn into nice compost eventually, cleaning takes much less time with a small pile of hay instead of a huge manure pile.

I fork the spoiled hay mess into my manure spreader, then spread it with the bedding on my fields. Then I am done handling it forever! No monster pile waiting to be cleaned up "eventually". I am at the point where I see no real benefit to making a pile, when I can spread it daily and be done with that manure and old hay. I don't actually do much plowing, because my ground is all pastures. So spreading old hay, manure does help enrich my fields when I disc lightly to open the ground for better rain absorbtion, let the fertilizer get down to the plant roots.

Picking up that wasted hay, food pile messes, prevents killing the grasses underneath by smothering them. No bare spots or weed sprouting in the bare places for that barnyard. I want as much grass producing grazing as I can possibly can. So killing edible grass plants under hay piles or manure piles is WAY LOW on my pasture management plan.

[oregon woodsmok]

All you can do is pencil it out.

I don't have any pasture right now and when I added up the cost of raising a cow on purchased feed, I couldn't make it work.

But maybe you've got really cheap hay in your area?