Dexter Cattle For Sale Discussion Board

I need the Herd Book number for; We Gaelic Thistledown, as I'm filling in the pedigree of a young bull we are in the process of purchasing. Also, the Herd book numbers of her parents - We Gaelic Mr O'Toole and Lena of Myers Farm, would be nice as well. If you can find a note of the colour of any of...

If the cows are 4 and 8 years old, I'm predicting that you'll wake up one morning, look out the window and hey presto, the calf will be wobbling around the udder getting a tummy full of milk. Or if it calved late the night before, it'll already have a full tummy and be curled up tight sleeping some...

I normally tell people who ask that question, 16 months. But I usually put the heifers and cows in with the bull at the same time so that the whole herd calves together, when the Spring grass is due to come in. So some of the heifers may only be 14 months. If any of them aren't well grown, they wai...

The best beef we've had from our herd so far is from a barren 3 year old heifer. By that age she had good flavour and was still tender. She was larger than normal as she had a cyst in one of her ovaries, which we think was giving off male hormones as she behaved like a bull and was 500 kg liveweigh...

Our last vet thought our Dexter cows were no problem to pregnancy test. I'd warn her about a nervous heifer and she'd say " your idea of nervous is everyone else's quiet animal" and grin. She used to wish that all cows were that size, as it was easier for her (a shorter person) to handle ...

Christmas and New Year greetings from us in New Zealand. Blue sky and 29 degree heat most days and we haven't had a decent rain since October, up here in the North. Pity we couldn't swap a bit of your weather for ours. ;) A week of rain would be lovely at the moment. :) Have a great new year everyo...

In all the years of Dad milking a dairy herd of 120 cows, I never heard of him speaking of a cow choking on her afterbirth. I've seen plenty of cows just leave it and concentrate on licking their calves clean. I've also heard a theory that they won't bother eating it, if they have sufficient minera...

There must still be Dexter bulls around that have strong maternal milking genes? Why not choose a non-carrier bull from such a line? In NZ, a lot of our foundation cows were Jerseys, so the Grade 1 and 2 cows often still have large udders. Most of our cows are non-carriers, so their teats are nowhe...

Unfortunately Jean, if I did that, under NZ law, I'd be breaking the rules. Homekilled meat is only allowed to be eaten by the family of the grower of the animal killed. If I invited him for dinner, I could feed him some Dexter, but as he lives miles away and is always rushing off to another job, I...

We're presently eating a barren 3yr old heifer who turned out to have a cyst in one of her ovaries. Which would be why she failed to get in-calf for the past two seasons. She behaved like a bull and grew to 500kgs. Her fat cover was adequate and we got 167kgs of meat back. The fillet steak is very ...

No it doesn't, does it. The more of a hurry you're in, the more they play up and do the opposite of what you want. The only way to make things go smoothly, is to play it cool and don't let them know that anything special is going on. Just a normal paddock move - until they're in a position where th...

It helps if the heifers are with older cows that are giving birth. They do learn by example. Normally they settle down and let the calf suck. So as long as the calf hasn't been through a difficult birth and is too low on energy to keep trying, the two of them will work things out. I have, on a coup...

Do you not have bulling beacons in the UK ? In NZ, we have various types of adhesive bulling indicators that change colour when squashed while the bull is mounting a cow in heat. These indicators either work by being stratched, exposing the bright undercolour, where the dull outer coating has been ...