Dexter Calves

A week ago we had three pregnant Dexter cows. Now we have three mama cows and three bull calves.

Casper's calf pretending to be asleep in the grass.

Snippet and her calf.

Casper and calf.

Rachael and Casper's calf.

Pokey's calf just came last night. I'll get pictures up soon.

I moved the cows today...

I spent about 4 hours moving the cows from one pasture to the other today. Most of the time was spent at the barn where I ran each of them through the headgate. I coaxed them in there with a little kelp meal (they love that stuff). But it still took about 3 hours to get all six of them to decide to walk into the headgate for a couple bites of snack. But they did it. And without any whooping, hollering, or hitting from me. I'm trying to train them that the headgate is not a bad thing so that when the time comes that I really do need to run them through it for some reason, it won't be a big deal. I think they enjoyed the experience.

Here they are in the other pasture.

Munching on grass

I love hearing cows munching on grass.

Strip Grazing

At Full of Life Farm, we practice what is called "strip grazing" (or "rotational grazing" or "management intensive grazing"). The idea is to mimic natural patterns of herbivore populations in natural settings. The key principles of this system are first to keep the herd moving around so grass has a chance to re-grow before it is bitten off again, and second to keep them mobbed up which encourages them to eat all of the varieties of grass/legumes/weeds and not just their favorites. This practice results in better health for the grass, soil, and animals. Everybody wins.

Notice in this picture the grass on the right hand side of the cross fence has not been grazed yet. A single electric wire is all that is needed to control cattle. We'll move them to the right-hand side of this wire later today. And we work our way across the pasture that way.

Dexter Cattle

Here are our three girls, Snippit, Pokey and Casper. These cows are half sisters and have been together their whole life. They are Irish Dexters, a miniature heritage breed. Dexters range from 36 to 40 inches at the sholder when full grown. Many people consider this breed to be duel purpose. This means they can be used to produce meat or milk. These girls are five years old, full grown and currently pregnant with their fourth calf.