Tuesday, June 5, 2012

A Milking Dexter

Meet Chautauqua Lully, AKA "peewee". She is a friendly but feisty first calf heifer. This picture also gives some indication of the size of a Dexter relative to other dairy cows.  I believe she will be the first ADCA Dexter to be on a Dairy Herd Improvement test. I am no fan of the national DHIA, but the testing is an objective standard both of the quantity and quality of an individual Dexter's milk.

6 comments:

  1. It's helpful to see the size comparison. Is this heifer close to breeding age? I guess I'm wanting to know if she is full grown or does she have a ways to go yet? She is such a cutie!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry, but by "first calf heifer" do you mean that she is the first born calf to a cow, or has she delivered her first calf? I sure need to learn some cattle lingo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Brenda
    Lully/Peewee had her first calf two weeks ago. She is just over two years old, and was bred when we bought her. "Heifer" is a young female. In generic cattle terms, she just calved, in dairy terms she is a first "freshener", since she is being milked.

    Form what I know about Dexters she will keep growing; not much taller, but heavier. Dexters seem to grow slow over years.

    She is being very well fed so she can both give milk and keep growing, and I think she looks pretty good for having just had a calf.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for the information. I will have to start researching Dexters, Kerrys, and raising cattle in general. There is so much to learn. I always had dairy goats in mind, but I've only recently considered adding a cow.

    I've been enjoying your posts, and I appreciate your patience with my novice questions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brenda,
    I am glad you are finding what I write helpful. Its been more fun for me to focus my writing more around one subject.

    We did a podcast on the old Granny Miller Radio about cows versus goats for home dairy. Might be a future post here!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would be SO interested in hearing the Granny Miller podcast about cows vs. goats for dairy! By the way, I enjoyed all of your wife's blogs. I wish that I had saved and archived her posts :-(. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your upcoming posts.

    ReplyDelete