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Author Topic: Pet pigs dilemma  (Read 3778 times)

Backinwellies

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Re: Pet pigs dilemma
« Reply #15 on: December 15, 2020, 09:21:53 pm »


! So far 2 breeds I won't touch with a barge pole, Dexters, British White Cattle and Limousins crosses!!, So 3 breeds!

I'm going to stand up for Dexters here ..... mine can be fed by hand .... yes they are livelier than my shetlands ... but it is they way they are handled (or not) not the breed
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

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SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
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Re: Pet pigs dilemma
« Reply #16 on: December 15, 2020, 11:55:15 pm »
There may also be a strain thing there, [member=26580]Backinwellies[/member], do you think?  In that some Dexters are run as pure sucklers, and a suckler cow's job is to look after her calf, ideally in the context of a relatively self-sufficient herd.  So a good suckler cow is often fairly independant-minded, putting her and her calf's safety above any other consideration.  (Bit like a hill ewe.)  Whereas a dairy cow - or a house or crofter's cow - is bred for docility and biddability.  Even if she gets to rear her calf, she is expected to look to her human staff to meet her needs, and to expect them to keep her and her calf safe. 

So a Dexter from a pure suckler herd may be a more aloof and independent animal than one from a smallholding where they get milked?  I have certainly seen that with Galloways.  Some - most, up where I was in the North of England and across the border, actually - seem to be pretty much semi-feral, and that is consistent with doing their job out on the fells, moorlands and hills.  But I met others who are housed over winter, some were milked, and they were as handlable and soppy as any Jersey. 

And perhaps the same could be true with some Shetlands.  I did actually explore getting Shetlands for us here when Hillie died, but our local breeder runs hers as a pure suckler herd, and although she was confident she could pick us quiet ones, she couldn't vouch for whether they would settle into a dairy routine.

Oh, and the first time I had to hold a 5-day-old calf down while its eartags were put in, was in front of its British White mother, who didn't know me from Adam (although she did know the person wielding the taggers.)  My accomplice told me that the cow would be fine, and she was. 
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

 

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