Just right for the garden: a mini-cow

Times online ^ | August 17, 2008 | Chris Gourlay

[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 world’s 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 we’re keeping them on the side as an interest. They do largely look after themselves and they’ve 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...

[goldstategop]

A mini cow. I just can hear the moos from the garden!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Calpernia]

I love the mini cow idea. I have been quite surprised that whenever Mini-Hereford are listed on my Breedville.com site, they never get any bids.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

They sound great but who wants to kill and eat the family pet? It sounds like me that people are going to get too attached to them.

[Vaquero]

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.

I kill animals for food, I take deer each year. I have been known to off a chicken or two for dinner...those are not pets.

I do not kill pets for food. Unless one is starving that would be tantamount to cannibalism.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Kind of like the chihuahua was bred to be a
walking larder for a small Mexican family.

[Ron Jeremy]

African pygmy hedgehog: Only a quarter the size of wild British hedgehogs, their purring noises and “smiling” expression have made them the latest fad in pets. They’re expensive, though, costing up to £200.

Hmm.. a pet hedgehog?

[Calpernia]

cannibalism?

livestock = cannibalism?

Ummm, yeah. Whatever you say...

[Abathar]

My father in law raised miniature horses years ago and made a killing until the market was saturated. Might be a good thing to get into at the ground floor if you have good breeding stock.

I never figured out how he was getting over $20k for his better horses, all they were good for was eating, pooping and pulling tiny wagons around but people were paying huge amounts for a little filly.

[nuconvert]

"According to the standards adopted by the American Dexter Cattle Association, the ideal three year old Dexter bull measures 38 to 44 inches at the shoulder and weighs less than 1000 pounds. The ideal three year old Dexter cow measures between 36 to 42 inches at the shoulder, and weighs less than 750 pounds. There are two varieties of Dexters, short legged and long legged or Kerry type."

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/dexter/index.htm

[kcm.org]

mini goat would be better at keeping lawn mowed

[OSHA]

stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog

Given the average size of the "back gardens" in England it's still too big.

[Vaquero]

not livestock...pets.

the article said it would be the family pet till it was time for the freezer.

My friend raised baby beef(veal). he had names for the animals like scallopini and parmegiana. he didnt make pets out of them as he knew they were to be dinner.

I have absolutely no problem with eating livestock....its whats for dinner.

[tubebender]

Do you have to kill them all at once or can you just cut off a ribeye when you want one?

[Calpernia]

1 - don’t name it

2 - slaughtering was not a requirement of the process.

3 - it is not cannibalism though.

[Wneighbor]

Interesting.

I need some cattle for a small place, maybe I need to research this a bit.

However, I don’t want cows in the garden! They trample the foodstuff. I want cows in the pasture. LOL

[texgal]

We have some friends who did this on their small ranch. They had a beautiful black angus calf. When I asked if he had a name, the dad said "His name is Lunch. I don't want anyone around here forgetting why we have him."

I wouldn't have wanted to explain that to the kids.

[Cyclone59]

yum, little steaks....

[Nathan Zachary]

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.

Contaminated raw milk and milk products can cause:

* Diarrhea and stomach pain, (which may be severe), from infections with Campylobacter, Salmonella, or E. coli O157:H7 bacteria

* Severe kidney damage from infection with E. coli O157:H7 (called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS)

* Miscarriage/stillbirth, or severe illness or death in the newborn when a pregnant woman is infected with Listeria (which is killing Canadians from listeria contaminated processed meat right now) bacteria

* Fevers and joint or bone damage caused by infection with Brucella bacteria (brucellosis)

* In some parts of the world raw milk can also be contaminated with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and diphtheria.

# People with weakened immune systems, including young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with certain medical conditions, are at highest risk for severe infections from contaminated raw milk and milk products.

And killing the familly pet, come on. Nobody would want to chow down on Little Daisy, and quite frankly, she'd be too old and tough if butchered at an old age. Not to mention increase the families risk of eating BSE (mad cow) contaminated meat. That's why beef cows are normally butchered around 24 months, not 7 years. BSE starts in the brain, then works it's way down the spinal column, into the nerve ganglia and finally into the meat. This last stage is when BSE is observed in cattle. Rarely is it seen in Beef cattle, because they are never kept around that long, most BSE cattle found are dairy cows that have been around for 7 or more years and developed the later stages of the disease.

[Nathan Zachary]

"I need some cattle for a small place, maybe I need to research this a bit.

However, I don’t want cows in the garden! They trample the foodstuff. I want cows in the pasture. LOL

Get goats. They taste good and are a lot easier to keep. Plus they don't leave giant poo patties all over the place, and pack down the soil so hard nothing is able to take root any longer.