[Keelan H]

Hi all,

I have been recently been offered a 5 acre arboretum by my partners father. I'm looking to expand my smallholding a little further and I'm looking into the possibility of a house cow. I already have 8 ewes and don't plan on expanding the sheep side of things so I the next step for me is a house cow that can produce a calf for beef a year and surplus dairy products. I've been looking into either a jersey/Jersey cross or a Dexter although I am leaning to the Jersey side. I'm just testing the water to see if anyone could point me in the direction of a experienced cow of around 6 years with a calf at foot to start me off in this new project. Any tips and advice is muchly appreciated as I'm young and always love learning.

Many thanks,

Keelan

[landroverroy]

Well I have kept Dexters for years and milked one or 2 of them. They have an attitude but once you've built up a relationship with them are perfectly amenable.  The advantage of producing dexter calves for meat is that you don't end up with a mountain of meat - half a beast will fit in the average upright freezer, and it is delicious. If you're wanting to sell the meat then you can cross the cow with something like a Hereford or Angus and get a very commercial sized carcase
Sally can probably tell you more about jerseys. I've only milked one and it had such small teats that it took me ages and put me off them. But obviously that doesn't apply to them all. With a Jersey you will get a load more milk than with a Dexter. Have you got a use for it? Also a pure Jersey or Jersey x calf does not have the conformation of a Dexter, although I believe the meat is equally delicious. This doesn't matter too much if you're just eating it yourself, but if you're selling the calf or the meat, then it takes the same amount of effort to produce a poor carcase as a good one. So you might as well produce a decent one.   

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I hear shetland are also very good too! [member=13]Rosemary[/member]

[SallyintNorth]

I know people do keep a solitary house cow with only her calf for company, but the Welfare Codes for Cattle do state that bovines should always have the company of another bovine at their own age and stage.  So in reality, it's not really high welfare unless you have two cows and two calves, sorry.  You probably don't have enough ground for two, even if you chose Dexters.  Especially if it's wooded, rather than all pasture.

Have you considered goats?

[macgro7]

I know people do keep a solitary house cow with only her calf for company, but the Welfare Codes for Cattle do state that bovines should always have the company of another bovine at their own age and stage.  So in reality, it's not really high welfare unless you have two cows and two calves, sorry.  You probably don't have enough ground for two, even if you chose Dexters.  Especially if it's wooded, rather than all pasture.

Have you considered goats?

Was gonna say the same thing. Goat can give you 3, 4 or even more litres of milk a day. Much easier on ground, to handle and feed than large cow. Plus if you get pedigree goats you sell the kids for quite a lot (much more than lambs).

[Keelan H]

Thank you all for the comments and advice, all is greatly appreciated and taken on board. If I'm thinking rationally cattle are maybe a step too far at this current stage and I will look in depth into keeping goats and they'd definitely suit the land and again are more easy to manage!

Once again, thanks a lot guys

[macgro7]

Another thing I always wanted to have is dairy sheep, since you already have some sheep maybe thing about that?

[winkhound]

arboretum + goats = no arboretum

[SallyintNorth]

arboretum + goats = no arboretum

Same true of sheep, I think.  Cattle too, come to that.

[macgro7]

My goats are mainly kept in the wooded area. They won't do anything to large trees but killed (eaten) all the small ones - sycamore, holly, ash, elder bit thays what i wanted them to do (as well as looooooaaaads of ivy and brambles). Trees which I wanted to keep are simply fences off with pallets and stock fencing so goats cant reach them. Goats will go for any trees and ahrubs before grass, sheep might go for grass first or a bit of both?

[Keelan H]

Dairy sheep would definitely be worth thinking about. I know goats would eat almost everything in the aboretum, however, I'd fence certain areas off for them and they wouldn't have free range over the whole place. Thanks again for all you thoughts