Georgia my Dexter heifer

[cathylee]

After having black Galloways I have thought that my red Dexter heifer was sort of pale and wasn't really crazy about her color but now I am liking it more and more.  Maybe it is just typical change as she matures.  I think she is getting a deeper red color than she had before.  Dam and sire were red.  I'm wondering whether you think she is e or E+.  I plan on pulling hairs soon.   

She looks a little thinner since I've been putting hay out instead of having the round bale out.  Hopefully we'll get those back out by this weekend.  But she is getting more comfortable with me now that I'm around when they are eating and give her treats when the big cows push her away from the hay.  I also need to get her feet trimmed.  I'm going to ask the vet if he recommends someone.  But don't want to stress her while she's beginning to let me brush her and generally touch her.  It has taken awhile.  Putting the lead on her when I get back from my next stint of working in another town.  

I need to figure out how to size the pictures better for this forum.  

[zephyrhillsusan]

I think she's a nice shade of red.

I know you have experience with cattle, but for newbies who read this forum, I have to add that after having a couple of problems (including a cow who got an abscess on her jaw from a thorn that got under the halter), the only place I use halters now is in the barnyard where the animals are closely supervised and everything is "halter-proofed." Even so, I've heard of a cow catching a claw in the halter when she tried to scratch with a hind leg. Once a friend put me onto the rope training halters, I much prefer to put them on and off as needed. I do use the small size halters like this for training calves in a controlled environment, knowing that with cattle nothing is ever really "controlled."   Sorry for the digression, but after my halter incidents I would feel remiss if I didn't share my hesitations. 

Back to the actual color of red, sorry, I'm not good at guessing because there are several possible combinations and I don't have enough experience with red. So far our red bull has sired three black bull calves, so hopefully I'm due for a red heifer and a bit more exposure to red! 

[cathylee]

I agree in principle about your halter concerns, but she was quite skittish when I got her. Since she was a fair size already it aided our getting her contained and we are working towards getting her lead trained. Ideally, I'd rather leave the halter off and hopefully get to the point that she will let me put a halter on when I want to. Not there yet. I know how well trained your Dexters tend to be but I believe your most cooperative ones were born and raised there. Maybe your bull is an exception to that. She was previously handled primarily by the breeder (a man) and trusted my husband far more than me when we first got her. Actually seemed particularly especially distrustful of me.  I did bring the big bad truck and trailer that hauled her away in a three hour trailer ride.  Even with the breeder present she was extremely excitable around strangers. While the steer she was penned with was calm and easy going. So she does in particular have an easily excitable disposition.

My only remaining original cow (Ruggles) is mostly docile but has no training at all and wary of us. She is very protective of her calves. Her daughter (Lil') born here is a piece of cake. My petting her calf was just fine with her. In fact, Lil would leave the pasture to walk up to the corral when I was loving on her calf. She thinks I'm an adequate babysitter.

I was keeping Georgia in a small paddock with the calves until they left last weekend. She hates being alone and has some Houdini like skills. But I plan on keeping her penned up a bit again in the near future so I can work with her more. I've been setting up a Bud Box type cattle handling system and will utilize that pen so I can manage her more easily.  (I'll post pictures if all goes well with our Bud Box, alley, and chute vaccination session.) I'm thrilled that she lets me scratch her a bit without a lead on and stands still to lets me take close up pictures of her face.  That is considerable progress.

I do have a couple rope type halters with leads but they aren't as soft as the leads that attach to the halter (cotton lead). If I have difficulty with her it will be hard on my hands and I like working bare handed. Maybe someone has a specific recommendation as to a rope halter with soft for bare hands lead that would work well for me.

I hope to try milking her if I finally fully retire. I've retired once and pretty much failed that gig, but like locum tenens work which gives me lots more time at home.  So training her to lead is important to me.  

[cathylee]

Aug 27, 2015 8:45:03 GMT -5 zephyrhillsusan said:

I think she's a nice shade of red.  ...

Back to the actual color of red, sorry, I'm not good at guessing because there are several possible combinations and I don't have enough experience with red. So far our red bull has sired three black bull calves, so hopefully I'm due for a red heifer and a bit more exposure to red! 

I'm going to guess E+ e.  I'll post when I get the results.  

[hollydzie]

Cathy my bull was the same shade as your little girl when he was young. He is almost 2 years old and has changed to a dark mahogany red. So she may change. My bull has a pink nose too. I have another red cow that is a fairly dark red but late in her pregnancy she will turn even dark, so they definitely can and do change. She is cutie good luck with her.