Cattle On The Homestead
I have been involved in raising cattle over the last five years. We looked into many different cows to find out which ones would best fit the needs of our small homestead. We have had Angus, Angus cross, Shorthorn, and Jersey. We were wanting to find a cow that we could consider the perfect homestead cow. Our criteria for this was to have a cow which would give us around a gallon of milk a day, have a steer calf with some meat to be put in the freezer, and be smaller in stature.
The issue we would run into with these cows is that they would either produce too much milk for us to keep up with and have steers that would not put on weight like other cows, or not produce enough milk, but have steers that would put on a lot of weight. In addition to this, all these other cows were huge and one would have to be careful when in the pasture. We were looking for a breed of cattle that would fall somewhere in between the extremes. Then one day, we stumbled upon the cow that best meets our needs. That breed is the Dexter cattle.
We purchased our Dexter cattle last year and we are very satisfied. On average, Dexters produce 1-2 gallons of milk every day, compared to 3-4 gallons for a Jersey and around 9 gallons for a Holstein. This works great for those with smaller families that do not need an excess amount of milk. For our situation, there would be too much milk coming from a Jersey or Holstein for us to keep up with, but Dexters would provide just enough for us. Also, Dexter cows and steers are a lot smaller than other cows. The average Dexter cow weighs around 700-750 pounds and the average for bulls is usually around 900-1000 pounds. Angus range from 1100-2000 pounds for cows and bulls. So this means that with Dexters you would not necessarily have to find another person to purchase half of the beef. It produces just the right amount to fit in your freezer. Another big advantage of Dexters is their height. The average height for cows is between 36-42 inches and the average height for bulls is between 38-44 inches. This smaller height is great because they are not so big. Finally, Dexter cattle will eat much less than other cattle. On average, they will eat about half of what other breeds of cattle will. This is another reason why people like this breed of cattle because they do not require as much room to have a cow.
As I said before, we are very happy with our Dexter cattle. Our cows are between 38-40 inches tall and are very small. We like that they eat half as much as many other breeds and that they are our own little personal cows. We always thought that they were more the size of a larger goat. If someone was interested in a cow for their homestead, Dexter cattle are ones that you should definitely consider.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.
Sources Came From:
http://www.dextercattle.org/breed%20discription.htm
http://www.holsteinusa.com/holstein_breed/holstein101.html
http://www.mofga.org/Publications/MaineOrganicFarmerGardener/Winter20052006/FamilyCow/tabid/1116/Default.aspx
What's wrong with too much milk? Turn into cheese and butter :)
There is nothing wrong with too much milk. Its just sometimes 5-9 gallons of milk a day is a lot unless you have a bigger family, but you could make butter and cheese. Also if your hand milking your hands will get tired real quick and that would be a lot of cheese!
LOL I hear ya. Do you have neighbours you can barter with?
We don't have any of cows that produce that much milk now, but we could if we got that much. These cows will produce just what we need. Also, we raise a lot of things already like chickens, cows, and a large garden, so we are getting pretty close to being self-sufficient.