Hesitantly poking my head out..new to this forum,any forum:)

[foxhillfarms]

Hello all! My name is Cindy and my hubby and two kids live on 6 acres in the Sierra Nevada, Nevada City area. We moved here 6 years ago and are working toward self sustainability. We have a large garden, raise and butcher our own heritage pigs (Kune Kune and AGH), both laying and meat chickens, and jumped in (kind of fell in) to getting a few cows. I had researched the Dexters and was drawn to them because of the size and heritage history, as we are a small homestead and the meat is just for us. (And honestly, because we had built 3 ft fencing all around the acreage for the dogs and I couldn't see re-doing all the fencing). SO, our first cow came to me as a supposed 3 week old steer calf that was rejected by its mother and was blind because he developed pinkeye and the rancher couldn't be bothered with treatment. Sorry for the tone ;(, but as an ex- animal health tech, it was difficult for me to imagine. Anyway, the elderly rancher had about 30 head of Dexter, 100 head of Sheep and was clearly over his head. He let me have the calf for free. I took him, treated him, bottle fed him from a friend who has a Holstein and had lots of extra milk. He had a difficult start in life, including a bout with frothy bloat, but is now a year old and doing well. During that time, I aquired a 2 yr old Mini Angus/Jersey heifer who was pregnant with her first calf, the bull being Dexter/mini Jersey. She calved last Jan and whala! I now have 3 cows. Before I got the heifer, I had a very hard time getting the Dexter calf to eat hay or manna or anything real. As soon as i got the heifer, he realized he was a cow and started eating right along with her. So one of my first questions is, : I probably waited too long keeping him by himself(4 months), but I don't think his rumen developed properly. He looks like one of those third world children with the big bloated belly, nothing like the other two cows. He eats great, loves to be brushed and seems to be healthy, but is not really growing any more. Not knowing his parentage, I don't know how big he should get. The 6 month calf is already taller that he is, albeit another breed of cow. Should I cut my losses and butcher him sooner, rather than later or wait and see if he fills out? He has a small fat pad on his tail, but you can just feel ribs if you push down a bit. The big belly is what is noticeable to me, because the other two don't have it. I feed grained hay/alfalfa, 14% pellets and have some (Seeded irrigated/non irrigated grazing) pasture that I rotate them on. I have out 3 types of mineral blocks/licks and we are on well water.

Okay, I probably violated all kinds of thread rules by lumping all that into one post. Sorry, please advise me how to proceed if I screwed up. Also, I have read a few references to the Dairy Queenz, and I am lucky enough to know one of the members and have her ear to bend as well

Are you still awake?

Cindy 

Attachments:

[midhilldexters]

Hi Cindy,
Welcome to the world of Dexters and congrats on working toward being self sustaining. You never mentioned if you had wormed your calf? Also, do you know if he is a Chondrodysplasia carrier? That would also affect his size.

Carol K

[foxhillfarms]

Hi Carol, thanks for your reply! Thanks, we are loving every minute of it and the kids (and their friends) really get into also. Yes, he's been wormed, and I do my own fecal testing to make sure I only do it if/when needed. I have no idea of his lineage, so yes, I'm guessing he's a carrier based on his short legs. He stands 37" at the hip and measures 12" across from hip to hip. His coat is a glorious red and he is polled. He was my first experimental cow, always destined for the freezer, and I learned a lot with him because of his condition when I got him. It says that we shouldn't post pics because the server is full, and I don't do facebook or the like. Have you had luck with the other photo sites?

Cindy

[kansasdexters]

Hi foxhillfarms (Cindy),

I use Photobucket to copy images into my posts on this Proboard, it's free to use. Here's where to sign up: secure.photobucket.com/register

Referring to your small Dexter steer, even if he is a small chondro-carrier Dexter, he will likely attain a live weight of 500 lb by the time he is 3 years old, and could dress out with a carcass hanging weight of 300 lb (60% of live weight), yielding approximately 180 lb of beef. So, depending on how much the meat if worth to you, and how much it costs you to keep feeding the small steer, it might be worth giving him a little more time to mature and develop.

Patti

[zephyrhillsusan]

Welcome, foxhillfarms.  We're glad you poked your head out!  Don't worry, you haven't violated any rules.    It sounds like you've already learned an awful lot, by the way.  

I don't have any personal experience with it, but it sounds as if your calf could possibly be a "failure to thrive" or just not thrifty, due to his hard start in life.  It would help to see photos.  I've tried Photobucket without any luck.  I used to use Tinypic.com till it quit working for me.  So far I'm having good luck with Imgur.  Meanwhile, my email is in my member profile, and if you want to email me a photo I'd be glad to upload it for you.

[midhilldexters]

I agree with Patti, I'd give him more time to bulk up, another year + should make all the difference and being small anyway he probably won't eat much and break the bank. Plus, the meat will be a lot more tasty. Like Susan mentions he may be one of those poor doers but he's young so give him some more time.

Carol K

[legendrockranch]

Northing to add to the advice already given. Just wanted to welcome you to the forum.

Barb

[Dahdo]

Welcome Cindy,
Sounds like you jumped in with both feet, but you have already learned a lot. There are a lot of good folks here who have lots of experience to share. We are just a few hours north of you outside Portland, almost neighbors compared with a lot of the people on this board . There is another member of this board from just north of Sacramento, I imagine he will check in here and introduce himself soon. Best of luck!
Dave

[foxhillfarms]

Wow! Thanks so much to all of you who came to my aid so very quickly. I will attempt to post pics of this little Dexter as soon as possible. It is nice to be able to peruse through all the threads reading what others write. It has been helpful. While I'm not interested in breeding for more than our own meat supply, it is good to know that a plethora of help is here when I need it. Thanks again!

Cindy

[ssrdex]

Hi Cindy, great place to learn a lot right here. I'm the just north of Sacramento member! If you want to contact me privately, my info is in my profile, just to talk dexters or find other local sources of good info. If you know one of our queenz, you have a pretty good local knowledge base to draw from. I've learned ALOT since I became a queen . I'm headed to Grass Valley this afternoon, there's a breeder there with a herd of dexters, & another with a couple head close to them as well. You do have a few near you. Welcome!