Hi from Victoria, Australia

[Deleted]

Hi & Happy New Year to all
Just saying hi as a new forum member and new Dexter owner (2 heifers in calf and a steer).  New to cattle too.
I'm on this site looking at cattle crushes and head bail info as we are setting it up here.  Trying to find what is appropriate for smaller cattle - especially when there are calves to be attended to.
I wonder if anyone (in Australia) has used the Lancefield All Pet Enclosures 'Complete Cattle Yard for 1-8 head' for their Dexters?  They advertise on Gumtree and Ebay.

[cddexter]

Hi nom de plume. A good source would be Margaret Weir, Wagra Stud. She's been around forever (shhhh, not that she's old, just experienced), and if she doesn't know, either it's not worth knowing, or she can put your feet on the right path to find out. Cheers, carol davidson

[Deleted]

Thanks Carol.  You are obviously more comfortable communicating on-line than I am.  This is new for me so a flowery presence felt safer somehow. Cheers!

[zephyrhillsusan]

Welcome, NativeViolet! I'm sure you're going to love your Dexters. There are several members on here from Australia.  wagradexters and carragheendexters come to mind.  Sorry if I missed others.   For what it's worth, we use a regular head gate (that's American for bail, I think) and a regular squeeze chute (crush).  They both work for our Dexters.  The crush is adjustable at the neck catch, and it will even work for yearlings.

In a pinch, although I think both of these are great purchases that were absolutely worth it, you can confine an animal with (hopefully) two people and a tube gate, although I have done it by myself.  However, it was so hard on me physically that I said, "We're adding a crush in the barnyard!"  One person's strength against a bucking cow who's determined not to take her "spoonful of medicine" does not make for easy handling!

The way the gate method works is, you attach one end in the corner of a fence; a couple of strong lead ropes work well to attach it.  Be sure to use quick-release knots because the animal struggling can pull the knot too tight to untie.  You "open" the other end of gate so it makes a V-shaped wedge.  You lead (again, hopefully) or drive the animal head first into the wedge.  That's where the second person comes in handy.  If your cattle lead, you can tie its head close to the tiny end of the V-shaped wedge while the second person pushes the wide open end against the animal, pushing it toward the fence.  Have at least two lead ropes already secured to the wide end of the gate, and once you get the animal squeezed, tie them off as tight as you can against the fence.  (Corners work well because your posts should be big, sturdy and braced.)  One rope will sort of work, but two hold the animal more securely.  I managed to drench a cow single-handedly one night doing this, but it was much easier the next night with my husband helping. 

And of course, the crush is the best way!  But in case you're ever in a pasture where there isn't one, this method will work. 

[Deleted]

Hello Susan

And just as importantly we hope our Dexters will like us!  We'll do our best that they do.

It's good to know the regular bails and crushes work OK for Dexters.  We had sheep a long time ago so know how it can be trying to restrain animals, even when they are smaller.  And sometimes you just have to do it, for the animal's sake.

Thanks for the useful information re tying with the lead ropes.  Most helpful.

best wishes to you.

[wagradexters]

Thanks Carol, "nativeviolet" (viola hederacea)tells me she might be older than either of us!! I think she was being nice. Native violet would be the first nom de plume that came to mind around the region at the moment. They are very thick through the bush here this year.

Anyway, we had an email chat about facilities. The mini-yard that nativeviolet mentions above does not have a walk-through head-bail. That would very soon become a drag. Our own first crush had a scissor head-bail gate on it for a while but we soon had that replaced with a walk-through.

One of our yard set-ups is out of action at the moment, pulled down to make way for the buiding of an open-fronted shelter shed. Now we will rebuild the yards inside the shed. The yard configuration worked OK for 25 years so no need to change that, I'm just not going to do it in winter mud anymore!

Happy Dextering nativeviolet.
Margaret

[carragheendexters]

Hi nativeviolet, welcome to the board, you will like it here, lots of experienced and knowledgeable people who are so generous in sharing their knowledge. You don't have to be worried about using your name on here, everyone is friendly and all of like minds, crazy and passionate about Dexters LOL. Good to see you have been in contact with Marg Weir

Marg and nativeviolet, I looked up the website for Lancefield yards and had a closer look at the head bail. I don't like it at all, it is dangerous. There is a permanent bar under the neck by the looks that can't be released, a disaster waiting to happen if a cow goes down. Also it has open bars that legs could go through, and I am paranoid with head bails like that, with regards to the risk of broken legs if they get a leg caught up.

I remember also a story another Dexter owner (Marg, Ann-Louise) told me about her old head bail, that when it opens up the bars drop down to the ground. They opened the head bail to release a heifer ( a Galloway not a Dexter) and didn't notice that her foot was in under the bar, and when it came down it fractured the leg. They had the vet out who plastered it as she was young and just a greenstick fracture, and they hoped it would heal. I never did find out what the end of the story was, whether the heifer came right or not?

Nativeviolet, you need to post some photos of your new Dexters, everyone loves to look at photos.

[carragheendexters]

Susan, your Australian is getting very good, you're getting to be almost fluent LOL

[Deleted]

Hi Louise.

I'll send some photos when we can see the cattle!  They are almost hidden by the tall grass in much of the paddock they are in at present.  Fortunately we've been getting some regular light rain here so there's good grass still coming through for them to eat.  They are curious about us and happy to come towards us for a taste of lawn clippings, beetroot greens etc when they come down our way in the afternoon.  We'll take the getting to know you stage slowly.  We're also managing an excitable loveable kelpie/lab dog in the process.

Thank you so much for going to the trouble of assessing the cattle crush.  My husband too thought the bar at the neck was likely to be problematic as he thought it through.  We're looking at some standard models available through the ag companies locally & the Stubby from Tasmania.  We're in Gippsland so lots of dairy farms and cattle products available.  It feels a bit bizarre to spend more on the equipment than the cattle, and clearly some people, as in the olden days, managed with much less.  Neither of us are up to struggling with animals though.

There's so many different things to learn, and do, isn't there. It's good though and interesting.

I expect I've found a bit of a 'home' here with this website and am glad to have found it.  My name is Mary Anne by the way, but I'll keep with Native Violet for now since the website is publicly available.

[zephyrhillsusan]

One sick animal or one round of immunizations to give, and you'll be SO glad you got the crush! Looking forward to seeing photos of your animals.

[jamboru]

Edited to say the forum logged me in automatically as Jamboru!! Sorry about that, this is not Frances it is Margaret, but the kids were all here over the weekend. No secrets in this house!

[wagradexters]

Louise is that your old school motto, Luceat Lux Vestra? Mine was Ad Altiora, but my choice of livestock is the Dexter. Covert defiance?

Mary Anne, Arrow do a small package: yard, forcing gate, race, crush ramp, for about $7000, maybe less. One of our SE group members bought that little set-up and it works quite well for a few head. I saw the Tasmanian-made Stubby on display once, very nice, but priced accordingly. A good safe crush is not a luxury, it is a basic necessity for the purposes of responsible cattle husbandry & emergency care and for OHS issues. That said, it is still easy enough to get a hand or wrist crushed between the head of a cow and a metal bar. Practice makes...for complacency

[Deleted]

Thanks Margaret.  Helpful. We're looking at Norton & Arrow, both of which are available locally so we can look at what we're buying, and Highfield are posting us info re the Stubby.

We're also designing yards and have found quite a bit of info on this, including Temple Grandin's website.  I found the UK Dexter's discussion list which had some useful photos.

My husband's presently making a wire spinner so we can add to the internal fencing for more rotational grazing.  So there's plenty happening!

[cddexter]

Crazy at it may sound, I was able to buy the English version from an IAE distributor in England. Would have been even cheaper if I'd bought it direct from IAE (and you can do this). Even with exchange (x2) and shipping all the way by ship from England to Vancouver, BC via the Panama Canal, it cost me less than buying a conventional too big one even semi locally. I think it was about $1,500 CDN, but that was quite a while ago. It's PERFECT for Dexters. Check out the IAE website, looking for the small crush. Because the headgate is built inside the crush, the animal still has about 2' of space in front of the headgate for the head. I found the cattle walk right in to the vertical bar box, no sweat, you close the rear gate, and then you can close the headgate on them. No lunging, no bruising, no stress.The bottom panels come out so you can milk or doctor at ease. Becuase of the height of the horizontal bar above the opening, it's just the right height so the cow can't kick. The bar catches the leg before the hoof catches you

Check it out, especially for price, before you commit locally. It will take about 2 months to get there, if you decide to go this way. I never regretted it for a moment. Cheers, c.

[Deleted]

Thanks so much for letting me know. I noticed on the UK Dexter discussion list that people spoke well of the IAE unit, but I didn't even consider it would be possible to get one here.  I will check it out. Sad about Canada's and Australia's exchange rate, isn't it.