Dexter Cows
Three years of quiet thought…
and one day, I said to my wife, “If we get cows, we should get Dexter cows.”
Within a week, we had three cows. Dexter cows.
We went from never talking about cows, never planning for cows, to cows. Even though I had researched Dexters to come to the conclusion I did, I had never talked about it.
It always amazes me, the power of words.
Why Dexters?
Dexters are the smallest full-size cows. They are gentle, they are tri-purpose (work, milk, meat). They don’t need as much pasture as full-size cows. They are better suited for wetter pastures. They calve easily. They are very hardy, cold weather tolerant. They are disease/parasite resistant.
There is basically no reason in the world to not look at Dexters from a herdsman’s perspective.
When you look at their meat, the general consensus is that it is more tender and flavor-full than other breeds. The yield rate is the highest of the breeds too.
The milk is fairly high in butterfat, around 4%, and the cows can be A1 or A2. Testing is needed to determine the genetics and which protein they give.