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Post by kansasdexters on Mar 4, 2014 13:09:00 GMT -5
Cows (including Dexter cows and bulls) can jump over 3.28 feet (1 meter) high obstacles, and that's the reason to make fences at least 4 feet high! www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYqiohfUBiMRemember, if they can put their head over the fence, then they can jump over the fence. They can also jump back into their own pasture or paddock, after they're done visiting the neighbors. That's why we never put open heifers and cows directly across a fence from any bulls, including the neighbor's bull(s). Bulls can also breed a cow through a gate, because all the cow has to do is cooperate and back up to him. His front legs come through the bars and are supported by the gate bars and the cow's back. I didn't believe this could happen until I saw it with my own eyes. So jumping a fence is not a requirement for an unplanned breeding, if the bull and the cow are so inclined. If anyone needs a good reason to genotype and parentage verify all of their registered breeding stock, please re-read the paragraphs above. Patti |
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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 4, 2014 19:18:55 GMT -5
Cows (including Dexter cows and bulls) can jump over 3.28 feet (1 meter) high obstacles, and that's the reason to make fences at least 4 feet high! LOL Patti !!! Some of us are working on that, and ironically we all hope to be done by mid April or so  Sheril is a bit over 5' tall.  |
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zephyrhillsusan
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Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502 
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Mar 4, 2014 20:53:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the warning, Patti. I don't plan on teaching any of ours to jump like the girl in the video, but obviously they can, anyway. I'm thinking that our no-climb horse fenced Home Pasture is the best place for any heifers we don't want bred, but taking the gate warning into consideration, I'll remember to keep the bull in a pasture that doesn't adjoin. Hans, you need to build your fences higher, LOL! |
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Post by kansasdexters on Mar 4, 2014 22:52:13 GMT -5
Hans, Looks like you might need some portable "fence extensions" to raise the top rails higher in winter! Perhaps trudging through all that deep snow just tuckers them out and the cows choose to stay close to their food supply, instead of wandering off into the great white frontier! Here's something fun that you and Sheril might do with your athletic long-legged cows after it snows: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1oo_wJscjA |
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dexterlady
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Wife, mother of two daughters and five grand children
Posts: 647
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Post by dexterlady on Mar 5, 2014 0:40:32 GMT -5
I know I had a cow and calf pair and when I separated the calf from the momma, she stood flat footed at a 48" fence, the 4x4 squares, and she went over that when her calf was crying...I was standing too close trying to get her to get away from the corner, I knew what she was going to do...Anyway, she almost jumped right on top of me....Thank GOD I moved just in time...But not before she bent the fence over with her belly! So needless to say, she got back in with her calf only to be put out back where she could see her...She was my tallest cow.....
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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 5, 2014 6:37:31 GMT -5
Extensions are on the list to make this summer. I will have to modify the hot fence below and switch it to temporary poly twine to make it work. The snow was actually deeper, to the bottom of the top rail for a couple of weeks, but we had a few days of warmer weather and some rain, and the snow has also settled and packed down. That actually made things worse, for now they walk on top of the snow rather than sink in. Two groups in particular are getting out right now and going for the stored food. I had to stick some fiberglass rods horizontally in the round bales with polytwine and hook up a solar powered charger to keep them from making a mess. Fortunately they haven't been adventurous enough to climb the snowbanks at the edge of the driveway to go over that fence to the adjacent neighbors. They have some apple trees too but the deer have been eating the apples that are still somehow hanging on the branches (they're probably frozen on).
Somewhere from a trip to Germany a few years back I have a postcard of a girl who rode her steer and did jumps with it. It was quite a sensation and ut must have caught on and others are doing it. This girl had hers quite well trained. Our girls would ride our little shortie cow Cedar for a while, but she didn't move much, or fast. But they didn't have to get a running start to jump on either..lol.
Thanks for sharing that and it gives me a chance to practice our German!
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Post by ssrdex on Mar 9, 2014 23:19:50 GMT -5
Zella must not have gotten the athletic gene:). I found her like this in the manger, walking forward...then reverse. Forward...then reverse. Went about other chores and came back in 20 minutes or so to find her still there doing her bad John Wayne impersonation, forward...then reverse. She even stayed in while I gave her mates their stablemix (pelleted alfalfa), and I actually ended up taking a bucket to her and got her moving in the right direction! I think I'll try to perpetuate this gene in my herd! I like non jumpers.  |
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Post by rhonda on Mar 10, 2014 15:31:38 GMT -5
Joel, can I ask you about little Zella? How did you come up with her name? That is my first name and the only other times I've heard it were my Gramma and my niece..She sure is a cutie and obviously gets her athletic ability from her namesake!!!
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Post by carragheendexters on Mar 10, 2014 16:14:12 GMT -5
Oh Joel, that is so funny. She is pathetic, obviously no idea how to lift her legs LOL.
Years ago when we got out first Dexters, we were woken up Christmas morning with a big hullaballoo in the paddock outside our bedroom window. One of the heifers was in heat pacing up and down the fence. By the time we threw clothes on and raced out she had cleared the fence, raced across the next paddock, cleared that fence, raced across the next paddock, then jumped that fence to get in with the neighbours Limousin bull.
ARRRGGGHHH!!! 3 fences, all 4 foot high with a hot wire, and she cleared them all like she was a show jumper.
From then on, every time she was coming in heat till she was bred, we locked her in the cattle yards, solid timber and 6 ft high. BTW she took first breeding by AI, such an easy cow to breed by AI, took every time.
We learnt early on, always two fences hot wired between bulls and cows and even then, where there is a will there is a way, and don't worry so much about the bulls it's the heifers to watch, nothing more racy than a Dexter heifer in heat LOL
regards Louise
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Post by ssrdex on Mar 10, 2014 18:44:55 GMT -5
Hi Rhonda, she's Little Farms Zella so I didn't get to name her, but the breeder names her cattle by the letter for the year, and 2012 was Z. That's all I've got...sorry! When I go finish "paying off" Zella with the painting I'm doing for her I'll ask if there's any significance. We usually talk dexters for an hour or so at least before I get anything done art all! Louise...See??? You'd could use that story to sell my high dollar homozygous non athletic cattle!!  ?? |
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Post by johnclair24 on Feb 23, 2017 1:24:33 GMT -5
The Cattle athletic training center is a baseball/softball practice facility located at the entrance to the plum creek sports complex.Training center allows areas youth baseball/softball teams and individuals a place to develop their skills during inclement weather or in of the season.
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Sheril is a bit over 5' tall.
