Personally I prefer the horned Dexters for two reasons. Regardless, the Dexter breed now has both horned and polled cattle. Many claim Platinum was a natural genetic mutation, however given the open English herdbook and breeding up program post WWII, that claim is extremely unlikely. All polled Dexters in the United States can be traced to only one polled English imported sire named Saltaire Platinum. After a period of time, the Dexter herd book in England was closed and breeding up was no longer allowed. Thus the polled gene was introduced into the Dexter gene pool.
Cattle used in this breeding up included dairy cattle(ie Jersey)as well as other beef breeds(ie Angus). The polled gene entered the breed post WWII when England opened their herd book and allowed cross breeding in a breeding up program to increase Dexter numbers to replenish those decimated by the war. There are some Dexter breeders who claim the polled gene has always existed in the breed however there is no scientific or historical evidence to prove that is true. However, the original Dexter cattle were all horned. I don’t believe there is any scientific evidence to show horned Dexters are heartier than polled. I wait until my heifers are 20-24 months and in good body condition before allowing them to be bred.ĭenny had a question about whether horned Dexters were heartier. Breeding one too young puts a lot of stress and nutritional demands on her because she is still growing and now growing a calf. You don’t want to breed a heifer too young because she is still growing.
When is the optimum time to breed Dexter heifers? This is a function of age and body condition. She will only let the mature herd bull service her. The young bulls(under a year old)try to mount but the cow will run away from them, turn around and head butt them and other avoidance behavior. I have observed some interesting behavior with young bulls in my herd with mature cows coming into heat. There are individuals in the breed that reach puberty earlier and some later. Bulls can breed as early as 14-15 months. After that, Dexter calves can outrun a deer.ĭexter cattle are very fertile and reach puberty at a young age. If you plan on tagging the calf and castrating if a bull, you better do it in the first 24-48 hrs. I can’t guarantee a Dexter cow wouldn’t have difficulty calving if bred to a bull of another larger cattle breed. Typical birthweight is between 35-45 lbs. The renaming calves are sold as beef at 25-27 months of age.Brett had questions about calving ease, optimum time to breed heifers and when young bulls reach breeding age.Ĭalving issues are not a problem in the Dexter breed if bred to a Dexter bull. We select our top heifers to retain and sell as breeding stock. Our Dexter calves are weaned at 6-7 months of age and continue in our pasture rotation system. Once the fescue pastures are depleted we feed round bale hay until spring grass begins to regrow. Our typical grazing season begins in April and is completed at the end of December. This practice gives adequate recovery time to each pasture with rest periods for each paddock between 27-34 days of rest per paddock. Depending on the size of the pasture our herd grazes a paddock for 4-7 days. Our pastures are predominantly fescue but many fields have clover as well. Our cows successfully nurse fall born calves as part of our pasture rotation system. We began our Dexter herd with White Rock Blossom and have grown the herd to breed 22-26 cows each year. Dexter cattle are a wonderful addition to any farm or homestead. Dexter cattle are easy birthers and display excellent mothering traits. We choose to add Dexter cattle to our farm due to their docile temperament and haven't regretted the decision for a second. One of our Dexter cows enjoying the late evening sun as part of our rotational grazing program.
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