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 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I think the basic plan is actually to keep the first cow for milk, and slaughter the yearly calves as they mature.
I can’t imagine eating 20 year old beef...
A pinscar is a better smaller cow, much better meat, like a red or black angus. A 2 year old will get to be around 700 lbs.
Another small all purpose cow that used to be in every farmers yard was a cow called a Canadiana. There aren’t many Canadiana’s around anymore however, might be hard to get.
if I were required to eat one or both of my 2 dogs I would consider it close to cannibalism the pet thing once again. of course if my human family were starving they would be expendable.
as far a slaughter goes, I have slaughtered and butchered every one of the near 30 deer I harvested. neither the slaughter nor the butchering is a problem. it is the slaughter of ‘pets’ by myself or anyone else that would be a problem. and that was my point. the guy who wrote the article talked about taking a “pet” and then putting it into the freezer. or did you miss that.
Well, I was planning on getting cattle and goats both. Couple of critters for beef, couple of goats for milk and cabrito. But, they’ve ALL got to stay out of my garden. Have had trouble with cattle and goats in the garden in the past. Goats are worse than cattle in that respect.
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.
Pedigree breeding. Horses, like dogs start getting expensive when you are breeding purebred lines with a good history.
Hey! Thanks for those leads. I’ll do a little research on both those breeds.
Same goes for cattle. A good lineage purebred breeding bull can fetch over $100,000
I think you are way too hung up on the marketing pitch verbage.
I know, but at least you can ride it.
My FIL was smart, he got in early and made a fortune, then as soon as the market fell he got out. He then got into alpacas early, rode that up then bailed on them too.
I saw him sell a nice alpaca with a baby on its side and had been re-bred to the same sire for $85K in the ring one time out in the Hartman sale. Same animal might get a couple of grand now.
He may be an ass in a lot of ways but my FIL is not dumb when it comes to finding the right time to make money.
Any idea why I can’t find either of those cattle breeds on a google search?
Yes they are. They'll even eat the plastic bumper off your car if you let them, destroy all your trees, eat the sides of buildings.
I had some a few years back, thinking they'd reduce the amount of grass cutting I'd have to do.
It's less work just cutting the grass...
I was thinking of getting some more though. But put up better fencing this time. There's a pretty good market for them with this growing muzzie population, so they aren't hard to get rid of when you get too many. And if you build a slaughter house where Muzzies can come and do their own ritual killing, you can make even more money off them. Otherwize you just sell them live, watch them stuff it in their car and drive away to do their ritual thing in their garage in whatever burb they live in.
Please talk your FIL into putting out a newsletter. I want to subscribe :)
If I wasn’t so tired of trying to be controlled by the two of them I would have asked for him to let me in on his little deals myself. :)
Pinzgauer
The Pinzgauer belongs to a group of European cattle breeds that are indigenous to the Alpine regions of Austria. They are considered a dual-purpose breed. The first Pinzgauers arrived into Canada in the early 1970’s.
The Canadiana was origionally called a Shorthorn
The Shorthorn originated in the counties of Durham, Northumberland and York, England. First importations into Canada took place in 1825. The Shorthorn has been called the Foundation breed since it has been used in the development of 30 or more exotic breeds throughout the world. The ones that remain today are commonly called Canadiana's.
bmflr
As the former operator/owner of “Cave Mountain Dexters” I can say this article is a pantload. The Idea of a “mini” cow is subjective. My herd sire weighed in 1000 lb range. Have that with horns headed toward you at a good clip and it doesn’t seem “mini” at all.
Took me a minute to figure that out. Had to continue reading and get the context. Forgive me, I am really having a good laugh at the visual of stuffing them in the car although I oughtta not. I am really blessed to be far enough out in the country now that I don't run into those folks unless I go to town - which I only do about once a month.
I had some neighbors whose goats tore up my rose garden and orchard one year. I shot one in my vegetable garden and started a whole neighborhood feud but that's just not to be tolerated. However, as I said I want to get about 1/2 dozen I think. What I did note that they were good for is keeping shrubs or trees trimmed to an acceptable level about the ground. They made nice prettily trimmed shrubs up to exactly the height they could stretch their necks.
I actually think sheep are more the thing to use for living lawn mowers. They don't bother the trees and shrubs so much. Seems that sheep prefer the grass while goats prefer just about anything BUT grass.
The cow in the pic with the guy must be a very young short legged cow. Short legged cows have very serious problems in reproducing, they tend to have “bulldog “ calves that are very deformed and born dead. No serious breeder does much short to short breeding. Most breed all long legs or short to long. I got out of this business about five years ago. Breeders were working then on the problems so maybe it’s better now, but it’s still not like the article claims.
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