Who Milks their Dexter's?

[lumina]

Good Morning everyone,
I am a first time milkmaid..
Milking my Dexter has turned out to be one of the most fulfilling things I do for my family. I am curious how many others on this board also milk their Dexter's, or plan to in the future?
For those who are already milking.
How much milk does your Lil gal give you on a daily basis?

[tiffin]

Welcome, lumina. I don't milk. Too much trouble for just the two of us. But, it probably is nice with a family to have the freshness.

Good luck. Adrienne

[jamshundred]

I milk on occasion. The first Dexter I ever milked was Peerless Vera. She was also the wildest most fearful cow I ever owned. Raised on pasture and never handled. I put a collar on her and tied her while she was eating grain, and when I "experimented" with milking her she didn't move a muscle. Otherwise, during her entire life she never let me touch her or come near her except to milk her.

Ruffles, the cow I sold Gene comes from an interesting line of Dexter crosses. I currently have three females from that line that I am raising to see if the milking qualities carry through the bloodlines with different bulls. Two are due to calve soon, and the smallest one is going on two years and is less than 30 inches tall and I keep waiting to see if she is ever going to grow!

[lsg]

lumina, I milk my little Dexter. She was giving over two gallons a day when she freshened, I would say close to three gallon, but I never measured. She has cut back now though. She gives enough milk for the house and still raises a calf. I think Dexters have the greatest personalities ever.

[dutchgirl]

I have been milking daily for alittle over a year now. It has been a great learning experience. I was lucky enough to start with a well-trained milker, and have now trained my first calf heifer to milk too. She was much more challenging, but has settled into a good routine now too.

I now have 2 more weanling heifers that will be learning the ropes when their time comes.

I really enjoy the time I spend with my girls, and I love my Dexter milk!

Lucy

[woodprairie]

The first dexter I milked gave 1.5 gallons/day after raising 4 calves over 12 months. I milked her for another 3 months. She was easy to milk, gave it all out, nice sized teats, big holes in the teats. When she freshened the calf was still born though, and the trauma (and a past history of a previous owner's hired barn help abusing her) made her unsafe to milk. So now I have and am trying to breed her daughter. I am also milking a little (38") dexter and getting a gallon a day, after she raised a single calf for 3 months (calved before I got her). She is a doll, temperament wise, she'll let me sit there and pull away (not such big holes in her teats) with no complaints. And I'm training her heifer to be a milk cow someday, if anyone is interested, in Maine.

[woodprairie]

One note about Bossy - she was not a cow you could share with a calf because she seemed to hold back the milk for more than 12 hours. About 15 hours, actually. While I was trying to milk once a day, I actually thought she had dried up. I would get a pint, or a half pint. But then when I weaned the calf, there she was at a solid gallon a day every day. So if you are dissappointed that your cow wont give you any milk, you are not alone, though this is the first time I've run into this level of "holding back"