Post by jeffwilhite on Feb 27, 2015 2:07:57 GMT -5
In 2013, my wife and I and our four young daughters moved from downtown Abilene to a 50 acre family estate in rural northeast Texas. It's about 30 acres of pine timber and 20 of pasture. The land has been sitting empty for a few years, and my dad needed someone to move out here and take care of the place, so...here we are...on our "Green Acres" experience.
I currently work as a software developer, and I have no experience with agriculture what-so-ever. But, those 20 acres of unused pasture are calling to me, and we have been considering getting a milk cow as a family project. I only heard about Dexter cattle two days ago, so I'm pretty new to the subject, but from what I've read it seems to me like this is exactly what our family is looking for.
We are considering starting out with a heifer and a young bull. I am assuming the way it works is that Adam and Eve get get acquainted with our family while we wait for them both to mature a bit. Then at some point they decide to start a family of their own, out pops a baby calf, we start milking the mother, and we raise the calf for meat. Of course, I know it's way more complicated than this, and I have quite a few very basic questions that haven't been answered yet in anything I've read so far. So, I am hoping that you folks can guide me to some answers.
1) How important is it to have a barn? I am considering including a good-sized section of our pine forest within the Dexters' electric-fenced area. Does a forest serve as sufficient shelter, or do they need more shelter than that? Is the barn mainly useful for milking, and if so, can we hold off on the barn until closer to milking time? I don't mind building a barn, but it will significantly delay our start date.
2) My wife is an avid, breastfeeding champion, and any milking strategy that involves us separating a nursing calf from his mother is just going to be a non-starter in this household. So, what would happen if we let the calves nurse as long as they want to and don't make any efforts to wean them? What are the downsides to that, and would there ever be any milk left for us?
3) When my 8 year old daughter overheard us talking about raising cows, she ran into the living room in tears: "We can't EAT our cow!!!" At this point we haven't even seen the cow yet and she's already sobbing. Surely this happens in some of your families, too? So, what do you do about it?
4) Sometimes we need to leave town for a week or two at a time. Is this okay if we are leaving the calf on its mother? Or are there other reasons we shouldn't leave them alone that long?
5) Currently, we are having someone come several times each summer to cut our 20 acres of pasture for hay. Assuming we rotate the Dexters' fenced grazing area periodically, will we still be able to cut the entire pasture for hay, or will grazing cows on it make it unsuitable to cut for hay?
I was very pleased to find this great message board and Dexter community. So far, backyardchickens.com has been extremely helpful for our Guinea project, and I'm glad to have found a good community for our foray into Dexters as well.
Thanks,
Jeff Wilhite
I currently work as a software developer, and I have no experience with agriculture what-so-ever. But, those 20 acres of unused pasture are calling to me, and we have been considering getting a milk cow as a family project. I only heard about Dexter cattle two days ago, so I'm pretty new to the subject, but from what I've read it seems to me like this is exactly what our family is looking for.
We are considering starting out with a heifer and a young bull. I am assuming the way it works is that Adam and Eve get get acquainted with our family while we wait for them both to mature a bit. Then at some point they decide to start a family of their own, out pops a baby calf, we start milking the mother, and we raise the calf for meat. Of course, I know it's way more complicated than this, and I have quite a few very basic questions that haven't been answered yet in anything I've read so far. So, I am hoping that you folks can guide me to some answers.
1) How important is it to have a barn? I am considering including a good-sized section of our pine forest within the Dexters' electric-fenced area. Does a forest serve as sufficient shelter, or do they need more shelter than that? Is the barn mainly useful for milking, and if so, can we hold off on the barn until closer to milking time? I don't mind building a barn, but it will significantly delay our start date.
2) My wife is an avid, breastfeeding champion, and any milking strategy that involves us separating a nursing calf from his mother is just going to be a non-starter in this household. So, what would happen if we let the calves nurse as long as they want to and don't make any efforts to wean them? What are the downsides to that, and would there ever be any milk left for us?
3) When my 8 year old daughter overheard us talking about raising cows, she ran into the living room in tears: "We can't EAT our cow!!!" At this point we haven't even seen the cow yet and she's already sobbing. Surely this happens in some of your families, too? So, what do you do about it?
4) Sometimes we need to leave town for a week or two at a time. Is this okay if we are leaving the calf on its mother? Or are there other reasons we shouldn't leave them alone that long?
5) Currently, we are having someone come several times each summer to cut our 20 acres of pasture for hay. Assuming we rotate the Dexters' fenced grazing area periodically, will we still be able to cut the entire pasture for hay, or will grazing cows on it make it unsuitable to cut for hay?
I was very pleased to find this great message board and Dexter community. So far, backyardchickens.com has been extremely helpful for our Guinea project, and I'm glad to have found a good community for our foray into Dexters as well.
Thanks,
Jeff Wilhite