Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2008 11:53:03 GMT -5
That is correct, I still live in town.
A lot of Dexter's are polled nowadays, so if you buy cattle from different sources, their horn status is a good thing to keep in mind.
Understood. I have horn status on my check list, and I figure that given two cows one with horns and the other without horns, and all else being the same, I would get the one with horns, unless I got a heck of a deal on the one without horns.
I'm not up on Dexters anymore, but when I was looking into them, polled was all the rage. I think you can keep horned cattle, or polled cattle, or even a mix - but you should think about how you will handle them and what your infrastructure will be before you get a big herd and start having problems. An ounce of prevention and all that.
Understood.
Cattle stay healthier when they are not kept in barns. They can keep themselves warm if you give them hay and water. Maybe something you could try would be a nice long hay feeder with a shed roof along the side of your hay barn/shed, preferably on the lee side of your prevailing wind.
I understand that, and given a better climate, I would not hesitate to keeping them outside all the time.
Long so they can spread out and the top cows can have their "personal bubble". Then you can fill it from inside the barn and your hay stays dry and they don't need to be inside, but the roof over the feeder can keep them out of the rain if it is raining. Snow doesn't bother them. If you use that system pay attention to your drainage around the shed, hopefully it would be a sunny spot that slopes away from the shed/barn. This would help keep it from getting icy. Ice is bad.
Being on the east side of the Rocky Mtns, and over 6000 ft, we do have cattle killing blizzards, that can produce drifts over 4 ft deep, and I have seen drifts over 10 ft on occasion. Last fall, despite National Guard helicopters spending a couple of weeks dropping hay to cattle, hundreds of cattle still died ( just east of my location ), when the area was hit by two blizzards, a week apart.
In some cases, despite hay being dropped near by, the cattle couldn't make their way through the snow to get to it.
This is why I would take the extra effort to bring them inside.