Hi from BC, Canada

[boothcreek]

Hi there,


I just joined since I started keeping Sheep(American Black Bellies and European Mouflon) just over a year ago. We also have a small herd of Dexter Cattle and breed horses as well.

Anna

 

[warthog]

from Belize

 

[Mea]

 

[elevan]

:bun

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Hello from near Chase BC!

Oh you have to tell me about Dexters. I think I really want to try them, I want to get milk and make my own cheese, a project I should not start till I'm done the University courses I have planned. If I get started with Dexters I'll have them all year so for a couple years I might just get calves and sell them in fall so I'm less tied in winter when I really need the study time. I tend to get really going on both farm and kitchen things, and I can see myself milking & culturing my winter away while the books go unopened.

The dual purpose of the Dexters sounds fantastic, do you do both milk and meat with yours? Are they as good about taking on a second calf as some breeders say?

Welcome!

 

[boothcreek]

Hello from near Chase BC!

Oh you have to tell me about Dexters. I think I really want to try them, I want to get milk and make my own cheese, a project I should not start till I'm done the University courses I have planned. If I get started with Dexters I'll have them all year so for a couple years I might just get calves and sell them in fall so I'm less tied in winter when I really need the study time. I tend to get really going on both farm and kitchen things, and I can see myself milking & culturing my winter away while the books go unopened.

The dual purpose of the Dexters sounds fantastic, do you do both milk and meat with yours? Are they as good about taking on a second calf as some breeders say?

Welcome!

We mainly use ours for meat, one is pretty feral(got her with 12 yrs old and no human contact), one lets me milk her but only when she got grain in front of her(otherwise there are hooves flyin everywhere) and the third cow never had a calf til this year and she sadly lost it and I didn't get to milk her at all.
I milk the Kicking one every year, just a couple times since we don't use much milk, and the fresh stuff is only good for making yogurt. Ours is very Fatty, looks like a Banana milkshake(sadly doesn't taste like one).

No one here has time to milk and we don't know what to do with it(got bottles over bottles of frozen milk in the freezer for calf/lamb emergencies). I do intend on milking our youngest if she successfully calves next year.

Love the temperaments with the dexters tho. Very personable and the individual characters are just so different.
I can't comment on them taking on other calves, never had to try it. But when I see how a calf is taken care of by the whole herd I can imagen they will take on another calf.

 

[BrayJunction]

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

we don't use much milk, and the fresh stuff is only good for making yogurt. Ours is very Fatty, looks like a Banana milkshake(sadly doesn't taste like one).

OK, why do you say only good for making yogurt? I have heard it's harder to separate the cream, so most cheese made is full fat. For drinking I know I'm so used to skim now that it would be hard for me to go back to full fat maybe, but I think for the freshness I'd like to give it a try.

Interesting your comment on calf care. This is what I have heard from others and with the amount of milk and it's quality the cows can easy take on a second. One farm near was picking up bottle calves and gives them to their Dexters after they calf. I need to follow up on that and see how the year went for them.

 

[boothcreek]

None of us can drink the fresh milk, its so fatty we all get ill from it(i am allergic to the fat in Milk no matter what kind of critter it comes from).
But the bacteria in fresh milk are the best for making yogurt, she used to make tons of yogurt back in germany but quit here cause no milk available has any bacteria left in it to make yogurt. The dexter milk is perfect for it. We don't seperate the cream out of it. we take it straight from the cow and make yogurt.

 

[Karma Creek Farm]

Hi Anna!

I want to talk to you about bringing my new little dexter to see your bull this summer...