Short Legged Dexter Bull

[Farmer Jayne]

So, we have what's actually an Irish Dexter bull. He's short legged, but very handsome and easy to handle. We just moved him and his Jersey girls to some new acreage where he is surrounded by herds of Angus. Everyone around here thinks that Black Angus cattle just about walk on water, and no other breed is worth anything. Anyway, I met the guy who has the neighboring lease (I'll call him Bob). Very nice fella'. He was trying to tell me something about my bull, but was stuttering and stammering. Finally, he said," I don't want to insult you or anything, but I think that bull's no good."
I said, "What do you mean?"
Bob replied, "I don't know how much experience you have with cows, but that bull is just too short. I don't think he's going to be able to breed those cows."
When I got through laughing, I explained to him that the cows were already pregnant by him, and that we had offsping from him from previous years. " Nature usually finds a way," I said.

[Bret]

A sense of humor is good much of the time. I have a few Black Angus and even some those don't make the grade in some people eyes. I don't have perfect ones but I keep learning with them. If your cows have wheels to get to the grass and the bulls get the cows bred, you are doing just fine. Nature finds a way for sure. That's how we got this far.

[genebo]

You have to get used to the mindset of the large cattle people. Most of them have never seen a Dexter before and they judge them by large cattle standards.

I sell Dexter semen, and most of that I sell goes to large breed cows. One of my biggest customers has Charolais, which have trouble having their own huge calves. My bull throws 27 to 35 pound calves with Dexter cows, so they use him on first time Charolais calvers, to condition them. It helps them have one of their own calves next.

They breed the Charolais cows a lot earlier than they normally would, since the calf will be quite small. They say they will actually get one more calf out of a cow than they would if they followed their regular schedule.

They have no regard for the calf they get from the Dexter/Charolais breeding. They sell it at auction just like dairy bull calves are sold. There are some people buying sale barn calves that get a real surprise!