Dexters

[o&itw]

Can anyone give me a brief overview of their experience with Deter Cattle?

Or, can someone can give me a link to a previous thread that discusses them in depth?

One question I have is: Are you required to milk them, or will they adjust to the needs of their calves if one is not interested in milk production?

[opportunity]

All cows can adjust to the milk the calf requires though some will have more issue then others I have two milk cows (jersey) and they can make more milk but thye don't unless htey need to.

[genebo]

I've been raising Dexters since 2003 and love the experience.

I don't milk because of bad hands, but I train heifers to be milk cows and sell them. The folks that get them love them.

Most of them milk once-a-day and take a gallon, leaving the remainder for the calf. They usually separate the calf at night and milk mama early in the morning.

Any cow you don't want to milk you can just leave the calf on her. She'll adjust her volume and even self wean the calf.

Cows that have lost their calf adjust to that, also.

They are a pretty hardy breed.

[Ross]

My neice and nephew have a few here and I really like them. maybe a little too protective at birth but better that than mismothering. Just makes it difficult to help if needed! Very good growth on rough ground but they make use of grain too. The stick together more than other breeds, which is nice if they get out! Too bad the ones here have to go, but I just can't afford to buy them. Someday I will get some more.

[Lazy J]

My dad has a couple of Dexter cows along with dexter-highland crosses. He doesn't milk them, just sells the calves as beef. When I've been around them they dexters were even tempered and laid back, but that was not in close contact on-foot.

Jim

[MARYDVM]

From my experience with Dexters and Dexter X Mini Jerseys in this area, very few were adequate as milking animals. They fed the calf just fine, but had nothing extra, and lactations were short like beef cows tend to be. Despite the dual purpose reputation, unless you know the milk production capabilities of the Dexter line your buying into you can't assume you're getting a milk cow.

[Ross]

Must be very light milkers as dairy goes, certainly nothing like a dairy breed.

[genebo]

In England they keep records of milk production, cream percentage and so on. A champion Dexter cow may produce 4 gallons per day, with cream percentage similar to Jersey and Guernsey.

I talk to a lot of Dexter owners. The highest I usually hear in American Dexters is 3 gallons per day. These cows actually look like dairy cows.

The dual purpose style of Dexter will look a little beefier and more rounded. a third lactation cow from the line that I raise will typically produce from 2 to 2.5 gallons per day when milked twice-a-day with no calf and with grain supplement.

Leave the calf on, drop to once-a-day milking and forego the grain and the production will drop. The most common plan is to take one gallon only. This lets the calf grow quickly and produces a really nice beef calf.

There are people who have selectively bred Dexters for beef. They tend to be taller, with rounded bodies that more resemble Angus than Jersey. The milk production is not as high as the other styles.

Not all Dexters are alike. Breeders select for the qualities they like best. Over time, the differences can be quite noticeable.

You have to be aware of the differences in body type and levels of milk production when you go shopping. Go visit before buying. Ask what use the seller puts his animals to: dairy, beef, or dual purpose.

My friend's 4 Dexters provide milk, butter and cheese for his family of 5 and allow him to sell milk on "cow shares". For a while he had 3 Dexters and one Jersey, but the Jersey needed more feed to produce the additional milk she produced. When she suffered from milk-related health problems, she was replaced with another Dexter.

Lower milk production is a positive in some cases. How often have you heard of an Angus cow having mastitis or milk fever?

Milk is not free. Each gallon of milk produced requires food input. The more you get, the more it costs. It makes no sense for a family that drinks a half gallon a day to have a dairy cow with no use for the milk.

[Lazy J]

Originally Posted by genebo

Breeders select for the qualities they like best. Over time, the differences can be quite noticeable.

In my experience many of the boutique breeds have no selection criteria beyond "I have a Bull and I have a cow".

Keeping these minor breeds should not be merely based on survival breedings, we have to have a reason to keep them.

[copperhead46]

Lazy J, Dexters are certainly not a "boutique" breed. They have been around for over 100 years, and they are a natural breed. they were not bred down from a larger breed, they were not created by some people just wanting to make a small cow. We have very selective breeders, like any other registry, and we have the bull, cow people too, like any other registry. I breed them for beef, and I breed for good carcass qualitys, other folks breed for milking abilities. I guess my point is that they aren't a flash in the pan, they are a very hardy, low maintainance and high return animal.

[Lazy J]

Originally Posted by copperhead46

Lazy J, Dexters are certainly not a "boutique" breed. They have been around for over 100 years, and they are a natural breed. they were not bred down from a larger breed, they were not created by some people just wanting to make a small cow. We have very selective breeders, like any other registry, and we have the bull, cow people too, like any other registry. I breed them for beef, and I breed for good carcass qualitys, other folks breed for milking abilities. I guess my point is that they aren't a flash in the pan, they are a very hardy, low maintainance and high return animal.

Forgive me for using the term "boutique", non-mainstream may have been better. I meant no offense to true breeders of Dexters as you, I am sharing what I see in my community and on this and other boards.

Thankfully there are breeders like you that are working to keep the dexter as a viable breed.

[RedRidge]

Love my dexters. No I don't milk all of them, just a couple.
My having 2 to milk I can rotate fall and spring calving and have plenty of milk for my family each day. With calf sharing I get 1-1.5 gallons of milk and still have plenty for the calves. The perfect amount for a family, which is one of the many reasons we have them.
They are excellent at forage conversion and require grain only during late gestation and heavy lactation.
The meat is excellent and because they hang a higher percentage carcass than a typical angus, your growth to meat ratio is outstanding.
Their temperment is so easy to deal with... I do intestive, rotational grazing and rotate mine in electronetting (even my bulls) and have no problems.
Love em to death... wish I could keep em all... have 2 for sale right now since I am expecting 4 more calves this spring. I always hate to part with them.

Having owned a dairy and then switched to meat, I can honestly say these are great little cows for dual purpose. Was hoping to travel to FL today for the Dexter show there, but health problems kept me home. Good luck to those showing.

[linn]

If you want a Dexter for milking then choose one from the lines that carry dairy quality, Woodmagic, Lucifer of Knotting, Glencara Finerty, Hillview Morris.

[o&itw]

Thank you all for your replies.

What I am specifically looking for is an animal that will do well on pasture, hay, and necessary minerals. I have no interest in milk production other than plenty of milk for the calf. We want the cattle for meat for our own use. A standard breed is simply too large for us to process at one time, so I am actually looking for the smallest breed that will do well and has a decent disposition.

[Gabriel]

I have some of the beef variety. When they got here they were quite wild, they've calmed down nicely though. They wean a high % of their own body weight. Haven't tasted them yet, but think that they'll be popular with customers due to their smaller carcass size. I don't care for the horns, not because they've threatened me but because, well... accidents happen. There are polled strains to fix that, and I'd like to find a red polled bull in TN if anyone has a lead on one.

[copperhead46]

Thats the whole reason I got Dexters, it was just my husband and me, and we sure didnt need 700 lbs of meat. Now I butcher at around 700 lbs and it's a full years worth of meat for us. It was just after buying a couple that I got "into" the breed and am so happy with them.
This last couple of years have really made a difference as far as grazing is concerned, my Dexters have done so good on short grass and not the best quality hay. I don't feed grain, but I do keep out good minerals and I have a molassas based mineral lick available at all times.

[wvdexters]

Hi! I have 3 dexter heifers. I started with two and love them so much I added a third last year. Now all three are bred and due this spring. I highly recommend them. They are small, very easy to handle, and require much less feed. I have a small pasture in the ridges, very poor ground, and they do great.

[suzyhomemaker09]

Originally Posted by linn

If you want a Dexter for milking then choose one from the lines that carry dairy quality, Woodmagic, Lucifer of Knotting, Glencara Finerty, Hillview Morris.

Quite an impressive list of possible donors....
Do you have US sources for these lines?
I looked at Woodmagic that line is from the UK only to find the only person that had them locally was not willing to sell any straws.
Lucifer of Knotting shows as being 28...pretty sure he is no longer with us...
NOT AT ALL TRYING TO KNOCK WHAT YOU ARE SAYING !!!!!
I'm looking for a potential donor for this falls breeding...

[linn]

Just because a bull is dead doesn't mean there are not straws of his semen still around. I purchased 10 straws from Judy Mosely several years ago. And though she is from Canada the straws were stored in the US. I still have a couple of straws of his semen left. At the time of the purchase Judy still owned 80 straws of Lucifer. Many bulls have Lucifer in their background. Many Dexters have Woodmagic in their pedigree, Glencara Finerty being one of them. Just because a bull doesn't have the prefix "Woodmagic" along with his name doesn't mean the Woodmagic line doesn't figure heavily in his pedigree.

If you are seriously looking for a dairy line of Dexters study the available bulls and their pedigrees.

[G. Seddon]

SuzyH, look here (3rd bull listed) for Woodmagic Hedgehog III:

http://www.dextercattle.org/adca/adca_ai_bulls.html