How did you get into Dexters?

[zephyrhillsusan]

Newbies and old-timers alike, this question is for you!  How did you first get into Dexters?  And when, if you care to tell?  I'll start:

We moved to this 29-acre property in Nov. 2007 with two horses and a puppy.  We quickly added barn cats and half a dozen chickens.  Then in the summer of 2009, a workman who was looking out over our property at the 15 acres of grassy hills said, "All that grass is going to waste.  You should get a cow!"  When I told my husband, he said, "I hate cows!  They're big and pushy and stupid."  (He spent two summers working with Herefords on a ranch in West Texas.)  "What about miniature cows?" I asked.  He'd never heard of such a thing, but I was sure they existed so I turned to the internet.  

Mini Pandas were cute, but way too expensive.  Miniature Herefords were out because I was worried about cancer eye down south. That left Lowline Angus and Dexters.  There was something about the idea of a naturally small, dual purpose cow suited to homesteads that I liked.  So I looked up the breed associations and found (if I remember correctly) Gary Chynoweth in Madison, AL.  I called him up and he was very friendly and happy to have us come visit his Dexters.  So we took a trip, met him and his cattle, and were so impressed by how small and laid-back they were.  We could walk right among them--something you could never do with the Herefords in West Texas!

At that point my husband agreed that we could manage a cow like that, and since Gary didn't have any for sale, I looked on the ADCA sale page.  There was our future cow, S&H Hilltop Sara.  We drove up to Kentucky to get her and brought her home the very end of December 2009.  We found an AI clinic two miles from home, picked an AI bull, and took Sara over there.  On Nov. 4, 2010 our first heifer, ZH Zephyrhill Siobhan, was born--and that was just the beginning.  As they say on the "Keeping a Family Cow" board, "CALPC!"  Cows are like potato chips--you can't have just one!

Okay, let's hear from the rest of you!

[karenp]

I want raw milk to drink, you can't buy it here. I don't need gallons a day and only have 8 acres. Dexters seemed the best fit.
Lower Delaware

[Olga]

I grew up in Moscow Russia, except for 3 years in equatorial Africa and 3 in Algiers where my father's journalist job took us. My mother had a green thumb, as did her dad. My great-grandfather on my father's side was a Ukranian farmer. Whatever earth-genes I have must've come from them, because it sure wasn't from growing up in a city of over 9 million.
We moved out of city limits in 2001 which allowed me to improvise with farm-ventures. Dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, hogs, sheep - some didn't fit us and faded away, others stuck. The progression was toward cattle but which kind? I wanted raw milk so I started to research dairy breeds. Jersey looked attractive, mini-Jersey even more so. But I couldn't fine Jerseys for sale in the area, and I couldn't afford mini-Jerseys. Searches for "mini" often brought up pictures of Dexters, so I contacted breeders in the area and arranged farm visits. Meeting Dexters in person sealed the fate.

[rhonda]

I am Irish. I have a little collection of Irish things. I found Irish Dexters at the fall Farmfest in Springfield, Mo. that the MDBA members attend..knew I had to have one!! They don't fit in my Irish cabinet though...

[cjsfarm]

We bought dexters in 2001 with a goal of having one of the biggest herd in the western US. We peaked to about 100 head in 2010, then realized we had outgrown our market. Long story short we now have about 25 momma dexters and plan on dropping down to a smaller number soon. We will have about 25 calves next month. We love our dexters & our dexter friends, so we will keep a few, but we went back to big cows this year. We now have a herd of 160 bred cows that are just starting to calve. So we will be knee deep in calves in a few months, Love those dexters, but had to go where the money is at!

[lakeportfarms]

We started with 5 Angus cows in 2004 because we had purchased the orchard that was completely overgrown and wanted something to eat down the brush, but decided that an Angus bull was not something we wanted around the farm. Sheril found a Dexter bull a few months later for sale. He was a little more than waist high and came with a Dexter cow, a little less than waist high. I still remember loading him in the trailer out of a barn and how tiny and gentle he was, but at the same time how he looked like he weighed 1000 lbs. At the same farm we saw our first Highlands as well and bought them as part of the deal. Yup, both Dexters were shorties...we finally we got a calf out of the Dexter cow about 4 years later in 2009, though we were getting all kinds of Dangus and High/Dex calves during those years so we knew Mike was working. But we loved how short and small the cow was and how little she ate so we waited and waited. In the process of joining the ADCA and registering the calf that year we learned about Chondrodysplasia. We also found out Mike had sired Wieringa's Paula MD who was the many time champion cow. Experienced cattle people commented how nice our calves were. We figured we had something special with Mike plus we liked the Dexters more than the Angus so we started acquiring non-chondro Dexter cows and sold off the Angus. This will be Mike's last year with us, we're going to miss him. Sheril jokes about finding somebody that does jumbo taxidermy

[zephyrhillsusan]

I love reading all your stories! Thank you so much for sharing them.

How old is Mike, Hans? If my math is right, he's been breeding your cows for 9 years. Just wondering how many years we can hope for from our little guy. I'm almost afraid to ask, but is Mike going to "retire" to a separate pasture?

[lakeportfarms]

Susan, Mike is 11 years old. We got him when he was almost 4. He was injured 3 years ago by a Highland bull we had here on the property for several months, who unfortunately got out of his pen and tore Mike up pretty badly. He had several ligaments torn and has been progressively been getting worse with arthritis now. The vet said 3 years ago he'd be doing well if he lasted another year. The winters are just too hard on him, and so we don't want to put him through another. He's happiest when he has his cows to breed, but he doesn't seem to be able to get them in the deep snow or if he has to chase them around a larger area, so we're moving them to one of his sons at the fourth month. I'd guess Mike has bred over 150 or more of our cows including our Angus and Highlands along with the Dexters over the years.

[dexterlady]

We got into Dexter much the same as a few on here....We bought 15 acreas and needed something for ag exempt...So I got the bright idea to get goats since my husband loved goats as a kid...I started out with eight goats I bought from a friend , crosses, and mostly Boer...Then I decided I wanted pure bred Boers, sold off most of my crosses...Some how (), I got up to 64 goats including kids!...When it came time for trimming hooves and worming and the CL worry, I decided it wasn't as much fun to have all these goats..And at that time Carl was having trouble with skin cancer....So I sold all the goats, got Carls' surgery over, and we still needed something for ae...So just by luck I looked on the internet, saw min. herfords , didn't like them, saw the min. jerseys, I love those , until I saw the price...Then I saw the name Dexters and had no idea what they were...So as luck would have it, I came across Barbara Nettis' name, who raised Dexters...I contacted her because she live in an area that I was familiar with, even though it was over 100 miles away....Didn't see any other breeders...Contacted Barb to see if we could visit...Her and Chuck were very very nice...You could tell Barb was proud of her Dexters and they were so beautiful!...I just fell in love...And they were so friendly!...I saw a little bull and I knew I wanted him...So Barb became my mentor and also my best friend...I have purchased most of my Dexters from Barb & Chuck because they have such nice animals...Beautiful herd....Barb is the sweetest person you would ever want to meet and very knowlegeable on the Dexter breed...She tries to help everyone new to the breed or anyone who has any questions...I am hoping I can have our Dexters for a long time....Donna J

[lakeportfarms]

Ugh. Goat hoof trimming...and 64 of them! Actually more like 256 hooves to trim   Did you schedule your weeks vacation from work for that?  Followed by a week of daily visits to the chiropractor?  I thought I was crazy when we had 35 or so here to clean up the orchard, and ours were mostly just mutt goats that I didn't worry about worming and hoof trimming much.  We had some registered Boer goats for a while, they didn't do well in our wet loamy clay soil.  It seems like I was always treating them for foot rot.  Oh, and the penitentiary level fencing required to keep them on the property.  Now we have a few mini silky fainters just to keep some of the multi flora roses that keep popping up in check.  I tolerate them because they don't jump and the kids sell for a pretty good price.  When they're kidding (they are right now in fact) we keep them in collapsible pallet containers that are 32" high and they don't jump or climb out.  

I bet you LOVE your Dexters following that experience!

[jlmissouri]

I had researched cattle for a couple years trying to find the best breed for me. I decided on Dexters because I didn't have much land or a lot of money. For 20 acres of pasture Dexters seemed like the best fit. I wanted milk and meat with grass fed cattle. After making sure I could keep my cattle fed by bailing my property for two years as a test I started buying some cattle. My original goal was a herd of 20, but we have since bought a farm with a lot more room. So I will build my herd little herd of 12 to 30-50 over several years. I bought my Cattle two years ago in the worst drought Missouri has seen in decades. It was a great time to buy if you had the hay. This year will be my first big for me calving season as my heifers are due this spring.

[Julie]

When my husband and I were looking for property to buy, we somehow ended up purchasing an old 35 acre farm! "Biting off more than you can chew" turned out to be an understatement! We moved here (Marion, Va) in 2003 and have worked hard reclaiming pastures, building fences, run-in sheds, water systems, etc. I wanted to homestead and try to produce as much of our food as we can, and we needed cows to manage our pastures. After a season of stocker steers I couldn't stomach being part of the feedlot supply chain. I had been researching Dexters online, but hadn't found any close to us. Early summer 2012 we were able to combine a visit to Charles Townson's farm with another trip - that is how I suckered my husband into the visit! We were soooo impressed with his Dexters we decided that we wanted our own herd. Charles linked me up with Gene Bowen, and we brought our first two heifers and a steer home from Gene late summer 2012. I bought 6 more heifers from Charles that fall, and was lucky enough to also buy a cow from Gene. We made a trip to Michigan this fall to buy a young bull from Hans, and are anxiously awaiting calves coming in August! I am hoping to breed and sell the "perfect" homestead cow, so I look forward to milking my cows and am trying to learn everything I can about conformation, milk output, etc. so I can make good breeding choices. We purchased a bull calf from the Coads this fall, so we will have 2 different bulls to use with our cows.
I have been so impressed with the Dexter community - how friendly and helpful everyone is! I have also been impressed with the little cows - they are remarkably easy to train, and have been very hardy so far. We have horses, goats, chickens, an several rescue dogs and cats on our farm, and the Dexters are by far the lowest maintenance animals.

[lavacaw]

When we came back from overseas after 5 years, we wanted to put cows back on our mostly wooded 38 acres. I wanted a smaller cow than the beefmasters I had been raising from bottle calves because my 3 grandchildren spent lots of weekends with us. A search of mini cattle led me to the Bar None Miniatures site and I saw Dexters for the first time. A couple of weeks later I stumbled onto a herd reduction sale of registered Dexters on Craigslist. I knew very little about them but I bought 4 heifers anyway. Two that were supposedly bred and two yearlings. One was bred. The following year I went looking for a bull and met Dexterlady (AKA Donna Jenkins) and fell in love with Zorro who was 8 months old at the time. We still have 3 of the original 4 (5 years later) and added Betha from Susan French's herd. We have had 9 calves and our current herd numbers 11. Some are very tame and some will never be. I have learned a lot along the way but still have lots more to learn.

[emsshamrock]

Love reading these stories! Frankly, I am not 100% sure how we got into Dexters. We have had them my entire life, and I am 23! This is what I do know, the Shamrock herd started out in 1987 with a bull calf because that was all we could find at the time. His name was Callen of Old Orchard from Marcia Read in PA. My dad called him our watch bull as he would bellow at people as they walked or biked down our road. Soon after, we got our first cow and calf, Twainland Jasmine and her calf Morning Glory from Jim Mitchell in Missouri. Those cows travelled the 9 or so hour ride in the back of our Ford Ranger with a topper on it. We had Jasmine until the day she died, she was 23 years old and gave us 19 calves.
In the early 90s, we had 2 separate herd of cattle: the Dexters and our commercial cows. Towards the mid to late 90s we decided that big cows ate us out of house and home. Our herd of Dexters grew and and one point was upwards of 50 head with genetics from across the country, literally since we bought a heifer from Sandy Thomas many years ago. Now though, we have 15 brood cows and too many bulls. The bulls are my projects. We have All three colors in our herd and all are horned, but dehorned. We have seen and learned many things in our 27ish years with Dexters and we love sharing those experiences over a cup of coffee
There are many holes in this story, like how we found them and such. I will have to get that story out of my dad to share it with you.

[zephyrhillsusan]

Cool, emsshamrock--a second generation Dexter owner!