Gorignak
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Post by Gorignak on Aug 16, 2012 19:09:53 GMT -5
We only have 5 acres of 100 fenced, and I bulldozed half of that 5 acres this spring to open it, so it is dust right now. There is a LOT of grass outside the pasture......roadsides, LUSH orchard that we keep watered.... small open meadows....and such. We have 5 Dexters......Dorothy (6) probably is a year from halter training....maybe never, so her and her calf are on the hay/supplement meal ticket. The bull stays where he is. But, there is a 2 yr heifer who is due "sometime" this fall.....and another heifer who is one year old. Both are now to the stage that the halter is draped around their feed bucket, and in our hand each time we brush them. SO.....any tethering advice....please, the gory details are better up front. What would work, and what is to be avoided. Will they stress that their "herd" is 300 yards away and they can't join them. Is there a "best" chain/connector combo to ensure safety. There are 5 of us here on the farm....we are out and about from daybreak to nightfall so management would be just another "chore". We can keep water to them anywhere, and return them to the fold every evening. The drought here is a nightmare, and we won't have more under fence until early spring. We probably have 10 acres of woods edge mini fields, and roadside grass..... lots of Bermuda. It really looks like I should go the xtra mile and get them on it. Thanks........Mike Attachments:
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Post by northstar on Aug 16, 2012 23:18:37 GMT -5
I tether my cow in my yard, as I don't have pasture, but I only tether her when I'm home. I use a stake my husband put together for me with a swivel on top. If you could stake two of them where they were close enough to feel like part of the herd, but not close enough to tangle, they'd probably settle down to eat better, instead of spending the day mooing. And of course they need shade. Since I stake L.C. in my yard around my garden and flowers, I've found she can stretch the rope and her neck an extra foot or two if I've got something tasty nearby, like my flowers or a cabbage. I don't mow my lawn anymore, just shovel it, and weed eat the edges. Marsha
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Post by dexterfarm on Aug 17, 2012 12:37:41 GMT -5
i have never tethered. I would be afraid to do it if I could not keep an eye on them. I do use electric fence in areas where i dont have fence built yet. I just run 2 strands of poly wire. If you keep them all together it will be less likely anyone will try to break out to get back to the others. Mine have been fenced in with only poly wire half of this summer.
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Post by LizMO on Aug 17, 2012 16:19:19 GMT -5
I have never tethered a cow. But we have used the electric rope and step in posts for a temporary area. The best products we have found for electric fencing is from Premier 1 fencing out of Iowa. We order on line. Step in post will be difficult in hard ground though. LizMo
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Post by theburrowfarm on Aug 18, 2012 15:11:54 GMT -5
I have used a simple twist in stake and 30 ' lead with cows and calves for quite some time.I also made a low to the ground wagon to haul their water tubs on as I move them .If they wanted to they could break the lead or stake ,but I slowly got them accustomed to it over time.I would advise to stay in earshot of them and check on them every hour.
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Post by northstar on Aug 18, 2012 19:56:51 GMT -5
I forgot, the best thing about tethering, besides not having to buy hay in the summer and getting the lawn mown, is they gentle down much faster. My cow looked forward to my coming into the lot and catching her and taking her out to grass. She got much friendlier last summer when I started tethering her. Being close to the house, and getting every apple core, etc, didn't hurt any either. Marsha
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Post by Olga on Aug 19, 2012 0:51:29 GMT -5
Some years back I had a cow tethered. The bull decided to take advantage of the fact she couldn't go too far. She ended up wrapping the cable about her rear foot and pulled till she fell over. I found her dead in the morning. She was 5 months along. I would never tether anything unless it's the only animal there, with no chance of something coming after it (like a dog; or a ram - but that' another story). It has to be on flat ground free of obstacles.
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Post by marion on Aug 19, 2012 7:40:39 GMT -5
The only cow I have been able to tether successfully was a Jersey. I used a thick, round, soft nylon rope and a huge swivel snap. She never got tangled. The last Dexter I tried to tether (while I was in the yard working ten steps away) got the rope around one leg, panicked and spun around three times and became a train wreck before I could go those ten steps...She was very frightened tho' luckily not hurt and I will never tether again. It's too risky.marion
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Gorignak
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Post by Gorignak on Aug 20, 2012 6:28:16 GMT -5
Thanks all for the observations. I thought that there would be some horror stories out there. We will be stuck with tethering a bit this fall as we stabilize our fencing situation. I am going to give up the idea of using any area that is not within view. That still gives me 5 acres or so that is not fenced, but has some of the best grass on the farm. I appreciate the portable electric fence observations. We have 5 acres that are permanent fenced with 6 wire hi-tensile and a 6 Joule charger. We just ordered a 13 Joule to electrify the 80 acres with 8 wire. Unfortunately, our area, layout, and soil situation inhibit the use of less-than-permanent electric fence. The soil is unforgivingly dry and rocky, and the patches of grass are VERY irregular and scattered. To get any kind of a ground at all, we have to backhoe a hole 6 feet deep.....weld a ground rod onto a 8' X 3' piece of galvanized roofing, and make sure to include a PVC pipe that we can run a couple hundred gallons of water down to keep it "earthed" properly. If not, the circuit on the 6 Joule charger is so weak that you can touch your tongue to the fence most of the summer !!!! Thanks Attachments:
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Post by laughingllama75 on Aug 20, 2012 7:10:50 GMT -5
I use temp. electronet. The particular one we use is the "quickground elecro-stop" it is 164 feet long and 42" high. I have a couple.....moving animals around is much easier. I use the "speedright 1000" charger with it. Step-in posts, no ground needed. Under 300 bucks you can have a temp. fence set up for grazing anywhere. I will see if I can find a pic. And yes.....the Dexters all go in, no probs. All of these items, we get from www.wellscroft.com/fence/fenceHome.htmlNow this is only temp fence, for moving and grazing. We have regular fencing and paddocks set up too. Here is a pic of everyone this spring, grazing the edge of the hay field while we were repairing other fence. There were 6 cows and a bull in there.
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Post by laughingllama75 on Aug 20, 2012 17:29:57 GMT -5
It's a miracle fence, pure and simple. LOL. Like I said, only temp but they know they are getting something good when they see it.
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Gorignak
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Post by Gorignak on Sept 8, 2012 11:22:13 GMT -5
Matilda is being tethered. She and all of us are getting our Dexter Psychology 101 course out of the way.[a href=" "] [/a] We are just taking it all in 30 minute segments of wrapped chains, head tossing, spilled water, don't like that grass, wanna be over there, you're going to do what we want you to do, okay, friends feed friends range cubes. I still have high hopes for tethering when the people are available and the cow settles in. We used a 16" truck tire and rim on some oxen calves before.....they learned to lean in and pull the tire to better grass. Water is less of a problem, as is shade, in cooler weather. Mattie is eating ankle deep Bermuda. She leaps out of her pen in the AM, and leaps back in in the PM with none of the coaxing of the first week. This is not what a cattleman would do, but I am betting that 70% of the Dexters in the US are not owned by cattlemen, but by people who could benefit from tethering.
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Gorignak
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Post by Gorignak on Sept 14, 2012 16:41:58 GMT -5
1 more week down the road. Mattie is thrilled when we show up to take her out in the morning, and thrilled when we finally return her in the evening. She is a new cow, getting all the lush green pasture and "alone time" to graze that she needed. This is not "cattle management" It is a homesteading "make-do" for the grassy areas that do not lend themselves to temporary electric. We are thrilled with the results....but it is a chore. Someone goes out every hour to check on her. The best solution to securing her is a 16" tire and rim that can be rolled around easily. You can put an eyebolt and a upper and lower nut through one of the lug nut holes and it holds the chain up so it won't tangle. We drive a 24" piece of rebar about 6" in the ground in the center hole of the tire. We were concerned that she could hurt herself on the upper part of the rebar, but that seems to be unfounded....no more dangerous than a branch. The bonding is almost overwhelming....she now loves being with us....one month ago she was unapproachable in the field. That alone makes this a TOOL and not a task. I see it as the first step in the training of every milk cow that we raise. Mattie was exactly one year old when we began. I am going to recommend it unequivocally to any small scale homesteader with only a couple of cows, who needs to utilize grass where fencing is not available, and who has the on site ability to monitor the cow closely. s1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg626/Upside_Downs_Farms/Matilda/
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Post by northstar on Sept 14, 2012 23:24:16 GMT -5
When I have L.C. tethered around my yard and garden and take her treats, scraps from the house, weeds from the garden, carrots, I think this must be how the original Dexters were kept in Ireland, a true house cow. It has made her welcome the rope, instead of shying away from it. And she wants a scratch every time I go in or out. Spoiled cow. Marsha
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Gorignak
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Post by Gorignak on Sept 16, 2012 8:33:27 GMT -5
Thanks Marsha....my two months on the Forum have led me to several conclusions. One is that this is really TWO forums.....or maybe a bipolar, dual-track forum. On one hand, there are the forum members who are deeply involved financially with Dexters. They tend to have larger herds and frequent involvement with the pedigree process. As is the case with all deep financial involvement....they are "true believers" in their version of "the path". Every bull calf for them is a "future herd sire", every cow the next Maureen O'Hara of Dexters. Their posts are inclined towards suggesting that all follow their lead. On the other hand.....there are the "rest of us".... 1, 2, 5 and maybe up to 10 head. We are not going to go to "the show" and the elusive "perfect conformation" is far less important than a pleasant personality, easy breeding, reasonable milk and a good carcass at slaughtering time. The "true believers" would like to suggest that the means to achieve this can be purchased from them. Hmmm, I wonder . While no Dexter Cattleman would consider recommending tethering.....I'll venture a guess that THERE ARE FAR MORE DEXTERS, FAR, FAR MORE in the hands of people who would benefit from an extensive discussion of the mechanics of tethering, than would benefit from it being dismissed as a fools errand fit only for the dilettante. Tethering is the best socialization tool I have experienced yet....Its benefits far outweigh the drawbacks as long as the dangers can be controlled. Sunday morning, so.....Amen "Remember, I'm pullin' for ya. Were all in this together."Red GreenHARD TO FENCE SPOTSBEST OF FRIENDS.....ONE MONTH OF WORK
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