If you follow us on Instagram (@silvergoosefamilyfarm), then you will have already seen the news. We have more cows! Dexter cows to be exact. It was an initial delivery of two cows that suddenly became three! Farm life is never slow, you guys.
A friend of ours was looking for cows, and had heard from their neighbors that there was a family in the area with Dexter cows. My husband was instantly interested because that was the breed of cows we had initially looked at before Cookie came into our lives.
What's a Dexter?
They're a shorter, broader breed of cows, that originated in Ireland. Sometimes they're called the "perfect homestead cow" because they're a dual purpose meat/dairy cow. (Although I'm pretty sure every cow owner would argue that their beloved bovine is perfect for their farm no matter the breed). On our farm, we were mainly interested in them for meat purposes, as Guernsey cows are pretty famous for their milk quality, and we know Cookie has quite the pedigree. Our favorite feature about these cows are their small stature. They're not "mini" cows, although if you have the chance to look at genetic histories of your herd, it's good to make sure that your Dexters do not carry the traits for chondrodysplasia (bulldog dwarfism), because it is a lethal genetic defect.
We were told that as milk cows, they produce less than the traditional dairy breeds, and tend to dry up when their calves wean. Someone on a forum mentioned that they produce similar amounts of milk as a large goat, so enough for a family, but you aren't swimming in it.... which initially sounded very practical and realistic for our families, but now that I have become obsessed with dairy processing and dream about swimming in buttermilk (not an exaggeration. I did have said dream), it wouldn't be the right fit for our needs. However as beef, they apparently are very well-marbled and highly flavored.
Picture this:
My husband was out of town from work. I was chasing around Butters who had gotten out from behind the electric fence (because, it turns out, was off and someone had forgotten to turn it back on), and he wasn't going back in easily because our dogs got over excited and were "helping" me. Sweaty and grumpy, I told my husband... "We CANNOT get more animals. Containment! Containment is the first rule of owning animals." And this is true. Containment is so important. In that moment of frustration, I had forgotten that for almost an entire year, we had our animals well-contained, but the one day I was alone, was always jumping to the worst.
I was a grouchy person, going out with our friends to meet the neighbor with the Dexters. And then we rounded the corner of their barn and saw the lot of them. Seven beautiful little cows. They were lovely, and I turned to my husband and said, "Let's get two!"
And so they came to our homestead. They were so docile and gentle, shy but very interested on a patch of grass that Cookie and turned her nose up to several times. They were so small in comparison to the cows we already had. A cattle panel is a little over 4 feet high, and Cookie, easily can stretch her neck over the top of one. However, Daisy, as she is now called, doesn't come near the top. Because they are so much smaller, they don't have the same impact on the ground with their weight and hooves and eat and drink considerably less. This seems to be a little objectifying of her, but Daisy also has fantastic looking teats, that would probably be very easy to milk, to the point where we briefly considered trying to train her to a stanchion to try... but there are too many things on the list, so she gets a free pass. They have horns, but after having Cookie for awhile, it's not a quality that I am hesitant about. We did learn that male Dexters have thicker horns that grow out horizontally outwards, while females have horns that are thinner and curve upwards. Lovely.
We got another surprise a few days after they arrived. Daisy calved!
We were told that her calf was 6 months old, but with a gestation of 9 months, the youngest he could be would be 10 months. My husband went out to feed the cows at around 9 (it was a late start day, as we were all battling a bug) and then when we looked out the window there was a little brown lump in the pen, and the lump moved! It was a calf!
All of us, even the sick ones, tugged on boots and ran out to see the new little one. He was shiny and wet and blue-eyed and beautiful with brown shaggy hair. Daisy hadn't even birthed the placenta yet, so it was very soon. We were grateful for a fast and uneventful labor and a big healthy bull calf that was soon up on wobbily legs to nurse on his mother. The other bull calf was curious of his little brother, and protective and gentle, which was another relief.
They're all doing well. The calf is big and healthy and running around after his mother, who is very affectionate and protective of her baby. We are hoping that very soon, we can let Cookie and Butters meet their new neighbors. They've been standing at the edge of their fence line lowing sweetly at them, as if to say, "Hullooo over there! Would you like a bite of this pasture grass? Let's be friends." Or so I imagine.
Farm wife. It's a wild ride!
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