some questions, some Dexter related, some general cattle

[dbarjacres]

Ok, I grew up on a Holstein farm, calves are cute but grow into big not to be trusted critters. The last few years we've had 4 different breeds of steers to try. Currently we have 2 longhorn yearlings, steer and heifer. They are both curious but heifer has no trust and is a bit "goofy", both will be getting butchered in fall.

Want to try Dexters. We just looked at some today and the situation they are in daily is ideal to us. They have just 6 cows, a bull and 3 yearlings, all are brought into the barn in the afternoon, tied in stalls, fed grain and let back out. That's the exact kind of handling we want. They are selling two cows with bull calves for $1100 each and two yearlings for $900 each. All are registered and they do the PHA, Chondro, A1/A2 testing. The two cows being sold both have extra teats on the back of the udder, two each I believe. The yearlings we checked and one has them, the other doesn't. In dairy goats (which is what I raise) this is a BIG no-no, but I remember my stepdad cutting off extra teats on heifers on the farm. Should I steer clear of this?

The other question, until fall, would it be ok to run the cows/heifers with my goats, and not have the new cows pick up any of the longhorn's antics in the adjacent pasture? That heifer isn't insane, but just spooky and I don't want her. We don't want to get gentled cows and have them either go downhill or put a lot of pressure on the fence. The fence between them is field fence with electric, would that work?

Thanks!

[G. Seddon]

I wouldn't worry about the "supernumerary teats." They are usually not functional, and typically are on the back side of the rear quarters. They can be removed when the calves are young (ask your vet?).

Understandably you don't want them picking up bad habits of the longhorns. I've got no goats, but you could try putting them together and use your judgment to see how it goes. I'm not sure if goats and cows can share minerals, but Genebo runs goats with his Dexters; maybe he'll chime in.

All registered and tested? Well handled? How refreshing! You could sell the bull calves as beef animals to people who want to raise their own. Depending on their age, you might want to make them steers to avoid having them breed their mothers or the yearlings. Do you plan to keep up with the registrations?

Electric should work fine.

Post pictures if you get them!!!

[dbarjacres]

Yes I would keep up with registrations. Unfortunately I can only afford two so would probably get the yearlings.

Minerals wouldnt be a problem as many people feed their goats cattle minerals for lack of good goat minerals.

Do you think they would learn from the longhorns in an adjacent pasture?

[G. Seddon]

I can't predict what any of them might do. I imagine they'll all want to be together, but if they are separated by electric fence, they'll soon get over the newness of 'nextdoor neighbors' and go on about their grazing. But keep your new ones in a smaller enclosure for a few days until they learn where their new home is and adjust to new surroundings.

[genebo]

My goats and Dexters co-exist quite well. They need almost exactly the same minerals.

[goodhors]

Do realize you will need to keep up the DAILY handling so the Dexters stay nice to handle for you. My Dexter experiences have shown them to be VERY smart cattle, quick to learn stuff.

Are they horned or polled, maybe horns removed? Any horned cattle WILL use their horns if they feel defensive. Not having horns leaves them at the mercy of a horned animal in herd situations. I wouldn't have a horned cow, any size or age, but that is your choice. I definitely keep your Longhorns away from the Dexters.

Know that the small Dexters are just like all the bigger breeds of cattle, think, act and REACT the same. Some are good, others are just wild. We handled ours daily, they stayed pretty tame, came when called to be haltered and led to her stall. Gained weight well on grass, alfalfa pellets for her treat when called. But I believe most cattle behavior is highly subject to your method of managing them. Taming them is ALL in the handling, and we did work with them to get them so nice. Loaded into the trailer as good as a saddle horse, easily loaded into the grooming chute for being worked on.

But most folks won't take that needed DAILY time to handle and train their cattle, so most of those cattle are pretty exciting to handle by a person.

[dbarjacres]

my animals are ALL handled daily.

Once I had a bit more time to think about it, I decided to pass on that herd. The coming in the barn daily was great, but I didn't like their toplines and thought they had pretty bad udders when the breeder was touting they were the dairy version. And even tho they were handled daily, they were very weary of us, which seemed normal cattle attitude with strangers around, but I wanted to keep looking.

Went to another farm on Monday....
We are now the proud owners of two yearlings heifers and a 3 yo cow/bull calf pair. DH, the owner and myself walked out into his pasture and half of the cows came right up to us and a few wouldn't leave us alone. The ones I was most interested in I could walk right up to anywhere in the pasture and scratch all over. Beautiful toplines, and udders to rival many dairy herds! And his are bred for beef, so a bit bigger framed. Altho all are still registered and Chondro free.

[quailkeeper]

I've had mixed experiences with Dexters. I also had registered Dexters bought from two different people. One set had great udders and gave great milk. They were very beefy and had an excellent udder. The other line were poor milkers, barely producing enough to feed their own calves (I actually had to bottle feed two). My Dexters were horned. When leading the very gentle cow to another pen, she turned her head and sliced open my husband's arm with her horn. It was completely unintentional, but we sold them that week. I have considered purchasing polled Dexters, but ended up with Lowline Angus and I LOVE THEM!!!