Earlier this year my family and I went to see my Mother-In-Law, Nadine, and her husband, Richard. They in live in Port Townsend, Washington about 5 hours from us. We always love to go there. My in-laws are the most wonderful people and I feel blessed to have them in my life. They live on about 8 acres and my Mother-In-Law loves to read, knit and garden (and is the best garage sale shopper I know! :) She and Hubby are beginning a little farm of their own and they are a great inspiration to me. The most recent additions to their farm are 2 Dexter cows. Iodine and Minnie are their names and Iodine is due to calve shortly. I wanted to write about these cows because I was impressed by them and we may consider trying them in the future. What I like about them is their size. They are small, 36 to 42 inches at the shoulder by the time they are 3 years old. This is no taller than our goats but much stockier and larger around. They seem to me to be a very manageable small farm animal. They can live on ˝ an acre of good pasture per cow. Perhaps because I have only been in the country and involved in farm animal life for a small time, cows are intimidating to me and I have had safety concerns about my children dealing with them. But these sweet little cows are such a wonderful size and are noted for being good with children. One reason people own Dexter’s is that they give a very manageable amount of milk, about 1 ˝ gallons a day. I have read that Jersey cows give around 4 gallons a day. Even in my big family 4 gallons a day would be a bit much. :) Many people will keep Dexter’s for milk and breeding and sell the offspring as well as filling the freezer with beef. Some people do treat them as pets, which I can only imagine must be because of their size and perhaps their personalities? After doing a bit of research on the Dexter’s I think they would make a good well rounded all purpose homestead cow. They are dual purpose giving both milk and beef, they are easy to care for and calve easily, and are suitable for small properties. I will be checking in often with Grandma to see how she is getting along with her Dexter’s and learning all I can from her in case we decide to venture into cows.
To learn more you can visit the American Dexter Cattle Association
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