Posted on 08/26/2008 6:11:14 AM PDT by billorites
It's the little cow with a big future. Rising supermarket prices are persuading hundreds of families to turn their back gardens into mini-ranches stocked with miniature cattle.
Registrations of the most popular breed, the Dexter, have doubled since the millennium and websites are sprouting up offering the worlds most efficient, cutest and tastiest cows.
For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass mown and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.
The Dexter, a mountain breed from Ireland, is perfect for cattle-keeping on a small scale, but other breeds are being artificially created to compete with it, including the Mini-Hereford and the Lowline Angus, which has been developed by the Australian government to stand no more than 39in high but produce 70% of the steak of a cow twice its size.
Home on the range for the Farrant family is a detached house with a large garden on the outskirts of Ashford, Kent. Bernard Farrant and his wife Sue, both teachers, have bought four Dexters.
With high food prices, they are actually quite an attractive option if you like producing your own food, said Sue Farrant. Both my husband and I have full-time jobs so were keeping them on the side as an interest. They do largely look after themselves and theyve been hugely popular with the children. Her husband said: They have a phenomenal reputation for the quality of the beef. I think they are proving very attractive to families who have a bit of land and are interested in organic produce. From an economic point of view, we get to eat as much meat...
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Checked the link, googled some shorthorns, marked all for reference when we get ready to buy.
Gotta find out if these littler things do okay in the hot of Texas. Lots of the links are Canadian for shorthorns also. Need heat tolerant beasts.
Goats are browsers like deer. They only eat grass if they don’t have anything else. If you want meat, Boer goats are the ticket. If you want your grass controlled, sheep are the way to go. There are several very colorful, small breeds of sheep. I think Jacob’s sheep is one of them I’m thinking of.
I’ve had dogs bigger than that!
Yes, I understand that.
Colorado cow nuzzles, then chases young bear
Associated press | 8-18-08
Posted on 08/18/2008 10:35:31 PM PDT by MtnClimber
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2064125/posts
Do they really taste like chicken?
My limited understanding is that sheep will not only eat grass, but rip it apart at the roots making the grass die and that goats don't bite down so deeply. Am I wrong?
I can’t say for sure about the sheep, but I believe that they only tear up the grass if it’s being over grazed. Frequent rotation is the key to successful grazing. But you’re going to be disappointed when it comes to grass and goats. They’ll eat your roses, your blackberries, your poison oak and branches and bark on trees, but they don’t much care for grass.
Thanks for the ping.
I will stick with the goats.
LOL, ‘Mini Cows’ would drive me nuts, after a lifetime of feeding cows and bulls, so they will gain weight and counting the pounds on them till killing time........there is no way I could do it mini style.
I don’t buy a goat that does not give over a gallon and a half each day, I expect a gallon in the morning, plus a bit for the cats and at night 3 quarts to a gallon, depending on stress and weather.........less than that is a meat goat.
LOL, “in my opinion”....
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