[AlexInLincs]

Hi

My wife would love a Dexter as a house cow.  We have a 1.1 acre paddock that is home to our two mini shetlands and have been told that we could also keep a cow and her calf on there as well.  This seems ambitious, so would like to know if any of you think this could be a goer?  We are happy to supplement etc if this would make it possible and we are very much in to the self-sufficient lifestyle rather than saving money.  The pasture is of excellent quality and we need to get something on there with the Shetlands to reduce the risk of laminitis as they will just gorge themselves on it!

Thoughts and advice welcome.

We are not looking to take any of our own hay from the land as we get this from a local farm.

Cheers

[Roxy]

Although I have cows and ponies here, I never graze them together....thats not to say it cannot be done though!!  I can appreciate that your mini shetlands cannot eat all the grass you have, but my initial thoughts are that a cow on there full time as well, will definitely make a big difference.  For one thing, the field will get covered in cow pats - horse piles you can pick up, but not as easy with cows as you will know.  The land will get bare, and do you have a plan of what to do with the ponies and cow when it needs resting -  as it will do.

If it were me, I would look into splitting the field in half, so that you can alternate the fields, or even keep the cow in one half, and then when she has eaten some grass down, add the shetlands.

I know an acre paddock seems a lot, but a cow do eat a lot of grass, and like I said, it will soon eat the field off.  I have had two ponies in an acre paddock for just 10 days, and it is completely bare!!  I am fortunate that I do have more land.  Thats to give you an example of how quick it can be eaten off.

Hope you can get something sorted - Dexters are really nice cows, we used to have one many years ago.

[Annie22]

I agree, although Dexters can be put in a field at a ration of 2:1  2 dexters to one say angus not 2 to 1 acre, but with the minis as Roxy said the field will need resting. 

[pankie]

hi we keep 5 dexters over winter on 1.5 acres, we strip it off into 3 sections & move them ever couple of weeks, to poo pick in order to keep the worm count down.
To keep what you have long term on the acreage you have I think you will struggle. The Dexters on their own will need about an acre.
Regards
Steve

[Sylvia]

Go to the Dexter Society, they will send you lots of useful information.

[smiffy]

I know i will get shot down by the dexter lovers...but please be careful buying a dexter...make sure you get one that is halter trained and calm.... all cattle can be dangerous, just cos a dexter is small dont under estimate it...they have a whole lot of attitude for small cows!!

They can be lovely, but they are very active and can jump suprisingly well, they also dont like to be alone, a cow with calf at foot would be a good option.

[lazybee]

I don't keep cattle, but nearly did (that's a different story) from observation it would be better to strip graze, as cattle seem to trample most of the grass to get to the sweeter spots and once it's pooed on they don't eat it. Some farmers close to me give them small fields and move them every few days. This is just what I've seen, so don't know that is the only reason why they move them.

[suziequeue]

I remember seeing a documentary about cattle grazing once ages ago. This family strip grazed their cattle on very small strips - highly concentrated... but moved them every few days and harrowed the previous strip to distributed the pooh more evenly I guess.

They were getting amazing milk yields because the grass was always fresh and the cows loved it.

Sounded like alot of work though - moving and harrowing etc but they seemed to be getting more for their acerage.

Can't remember where it was now - somewhere in the states.

Susanna