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Post by forester7 on Oct 13, 2016 19:12:56 GMT -5
Hi Folks. I am planing on building a hobby barn and I would like to design it to accommodate up to 6 Dexter cattle (2 cows and their offspring to butcher time). If I go with open pens, how big and how many should I have, and how big should they be? If I tie them up in stanchions, what dimensions should the stalls be? I have seen stanchions for regular beef cattle that are spaced 3 feet apart and 8 feet from front of manger to start of the manure trench. I assume I could shorten these dimension for Dexters, but by how much? Oddly enough, I have not yet seen a Dexter in person! I grew up on a "regular" beef farm! Thanks in advance for any help!
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Post by otf on Oct 14, 2016 16:52:17 GMT -5
forester7, I'm not a regular on this board, but I feel compelled to respond to your post. I have no idea where you live, so that information might be useful for anyone else who wants to reply to your questions.
First, why do you want to keep cattle confined to stalls or stanchions? (I consider a stanchion a very temporary enclosure for a milk cow, to be used only during the brief daily periods when she is being milked.) Most Dexter owners/breeders keep their cattle on pasture and some provide shelters for the animals in harsh weather (I am one who does) but basically, the cattle live out in the open in pastures and that is where they calve most of the time.
I would suggest you contact some Dexter breeders and ask to visit their farms; I think you'll find answers to your questions varying from person to person, and from farm to farm, but I've not heard of anyone who keeps their Dexters confined as you describe.
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Post by forester7 on Oct 14, 2016 19:53:43 GMT -5
I live in New Brunswick, Canada where winters can be nasty. I grew up on a beef farm where cattle were kept in stanchions during the winter... I guess that is the system I am familiar with. I don't really see leaving them out all inter as an option because of the cold and the wet weather in the fall creating a mud pit with cattle tramping. Keeping them in pens in the barn in the winter might be an option, but I would think that would be hard to muck them out with them in the pen at the same time. Are my thoughts off on all this?
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Post by otf on Oct 15, 2016 7:48:54 GMT -5
OK, that makes better sense to me now that I know your location. I have seen a dairy farm here where the cows all live under a HUGE tent thing (much like an airplane hangar) with deep shavings as bedding; they are protected from the elements and pretty much live in there. The sides of the structure can be raised or lowered as needed. I think tractors clean up the used bedding and spread clean shavings. I think this would be easier than having individual stalls, feeders, waterers, etc. Or, you might consider a large shelter where they can come in as they want or need from pasture. Mud can be an issue no matter where you live, depending on the weather and the season.
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