DEXTERS

Dexters are the smallest breed of cattle native to the UK although that description really applies to the short legged variant of the breed. Ours are non shorts, the photo shows the first two cows and a steer shortly after they arrived in 2010. We still have the two cows but they have a bit more company now

 

 

 

 

Dexters originated in the west of Ireland and still have many of the original attributes – they are very hardy and can get by on some pretty poor pasture. The breed fell out of favour for a while and numbers declined drastically, however the last half century has seen a strong revival and I believe there are around 30,000 in the UK at the moment.

They are often referred to as the small holders cow and they fill that role very well, they will produce enough milk of very good quality for a family and / or rear a calf to provide top quality beef .

From the original herd of 2 cows and a steer we have expanded through a mix of purchases and retained heifers to our current 25 cows plus followers, although the majority of them are put to a more commercial bull we keep 8-10 running with the Dexter Bull to produce pedigree heifers and steers.

A lot of farmers will tell you that they are naturally wild and difficult to handle but we have never found that to be the case. Like all cattle they can easily be wound up but they rapidly learn what a bucket is for and will readily come to see what is in it,

 

 

 

 

The bull is half the herd as they say and this bad boy came to us 3 years ago – Ashdown Graham more commonly known as Hamish, he has a bit of a gormless side to him but he produces nice chunky calves which get up and suck. He is naturally polled and passes that on to about half of his calves which is also very welcome – we subscribe to the view that there is neither meat nor milk in a horn and all calves are dehorned where necessary.