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Author Topic: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#  (Read 6802 times)

Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« on: July 06, 2014, 03:51:39 pm »
This is our first cross bred calf born today, hopefully will produce a bigger carcass with Dexter flavour! For now he's just very cute  :love:



Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2014, 03:59:08 pm »
Yes, he is very cute  :thumbsup:
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2014, 04:42:06 pm »
He looks grand :)

Did you use Belgian Blue or British Blue?  I ask because they've done a lot of work with the British bloodlines to minimise some of the problems that double muscling can cause.  One of the ways they've done it is to breed for shorter gestation, so the calves are born a few days earlier and that little bit smaller.  Yours doesn't look small!  lol.  But maybe he just looks huge because she's a small cow.

Either ways, that's a fine calf  :thumbsup:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2014, 06:20:50 pm »
Belgian Blue, Boherard Cian, he's an easy calving bull who's used by a dairy farm I milk at so I knew he should be easy calving!
He's a good size really, I just helped a little as she's an older girl and I was aware it would be a bigger calf than she normally has.
Were very pleased with him  :thumbsup: he's got little roan bits on him now he's fluffed up

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2014, 08:18:29 pm »
He looks grand  :thumbsup:

langfauld easycare

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2014, 11:53:36 pm »
 :wave: nice calf :thumbsup:  .almost as nice as my hereford  ;) . did she manage on her own or did u need to give her a hand ?

Mammyshaz

  • Joined Feb 2012
  • Durham
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2014, 07:46:37 am »
 :love: cute

Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2014, 08:21:58 am »
She probably would have managed but I gave her a hand as she is getting on abit now and I wasn't sure just how big the calf would be!
Only a rope pull though, certainly no calving aid needed

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2014, 12:45:47 pm »
do you have any current pics of the calf? just curious to see how he turns out  :excited:

waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2014, 01:04:13 pm »
Congrats :thumbsup:
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2014, 02:33:54 pm »
Will get a couple more pics to post

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2014, 03:01:22 pm »
I would be very interested to know the size weights of the calf when older  :thinking:

200 day weight would be fascinating

in 2-3 years we would be looking at getting some low input hardy animals to produce beef stores, but they would have to be salable as stores in commercial live markets, pure dexters are too low value for us but would be interesting to see how the crossbred calf turns out

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2014, 05:08:18 pm »
dexter beef was on tv yesterday - "taste of Britain".
 :thumbsup:

MKay

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2014, 12:35:26 pm »
Ladygrey, We are crossing Dexter to Galloway to produce a small hardy heifer for that reason. We can then AI with something larger for a marketable carcass, probably short horn the aim being to sell to Morrison's.

MKay

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Dexter x Belgium Blue calf #with pics#
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2014, 01:03:58 pm »
Sbom, that is a very nice cow as well! How old is she?

 

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