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Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 8, 2014 12:48:15 GMT
Well, our path to having a predominately short and/or traditional lines herd continues with the acquisition of two cows and a heifer on Saturday. One, Willow Hill Macey, is both short and traditional lines. She's an older girl, but is in good health and shape and has a really nice udder for such an mature lady. She's very short. We have had one of her daughters since she was weaned, and she's one of our nicest little cows with a great temperament. There is also a 1/16 chance Macey will carry red...lol...figuring that out was easy, Sheril is a math teacher so she's used to it  We'll have to do something about her horns though, they're curling around and the tips are starting to put pressure on the forehead. I've never seen horns like that. Pictures to follow... |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2014 19:12:45 GMT
I am still trying to find a legacy chodro. I know of only 3 in existence. If in your searching you come across one. let me know.
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Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 8, 2014 20:19:13 GMT
I will let you know Mike, just check here for a photo of her grazing our pastures! This is Macey (Black) and Tink (Dun). As you can see I like my cows short and with big udders!  |
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Post by Donlin Stud on Sept 8, 2014 21:39:34 GMT
Blimey now that's short *LOL*
On looking instead of glancing both girls have great length in back which I feel always makes them look shorter than they really are
I'm so full of envy. Congratulations is definitely well in order.
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Post by lonecowhand on Sept 8, 2014 22:39:56 GMT
Wow, those are some long low girls! I see the horn thing goin' on there on Macey, have you got an idea on that?
And how are you guys finding all these shortie dexters? The good thing for the rest us is you are gonna run out of room!
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Post by wvdexters on Sept 9, 2014 1:47:13 GMT
Lovely cows Hans. Now THESE are Dexters!!!!!
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Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 9, 2014 2:31:58 GMT
Thanks all...yes, we're quite pleased with them. We've know about them for some time, having acquired Macey's daughter several years ago and visiting their farm. We also have two of Tink's daughters, though they are non-carriers.
As far as the horns, we're going to have the vet take off the tips. Macey is getting up there in years so we don't want it to be too traumatic for her. It's probably a little late, but I may also try scraping them to change their direction some. By taking something like a piece of steel with good square edges, you can scrape on the horn opposite of the direction you want the horn to grow. In Macey's case that would be on the inside radius of the horn. It is supposed to stimulate growth on the area you scrape, which will redirect the horn direction and hopefully straighten them out some.
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Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 9, 2014 10:54:05 GMT
By the way, Tink is out of the same breeder. Did any of you notice that she only has one horn on her right side? Perhaps I've found a compromise with the polled/horned factions...lol Or I have a unicorn cow, now if I could only get some others just like her, I'd be rolling in money!
Actually Tink is the result of a poor dehorning job. I guess it happens...however, these girls were bred and (originally) owned by a veterinarian. Although I've heard he's getting out of Dexters, and even seen an ad for them where he extols the virtues of homozygous polled Dexters "no more dehorning!" In recent years (post chondro testing) he had gone to all polled and non-chondro... Looking at Macey and Tink, I wonder if he would have been better off sticking with what he started with, horns, chondro, and all, as they would have been small and easy to manage compared to what are probably considerably larger homozygous polled non carriers that he owns and is trying to get out of now.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2014 15:23:51 GMT
Very nice Hans! With our recent surprise we have begun
to rationalize how we milk share Lucy in a month or so.
Thought I would need to put hole for milk bucket but with
yours would need to dig a well!
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Post by lonecowhand on Sept 10, 2014 23:04:13 GMT
Well Hans, There's just no place else to put this question: Do the horns have nerves or blood supply, or are they like Rhino horn, just solid and inert? (I'm NOT suggesting unnecessary!)
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Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 11, 2014 0:33:12 GMT
The horns do have a blood supply, going up perhaps 2/3 or so of the way. We don't plan to take more than a inch or two off of the horn. There may still be some bleeding, but probably not much. That should be enough to get them off her forehead, and then we'll try to do the scraping to change the direction a little bit. Macey is 12 years old, so we'll try to do as little as possible to her. She's presently bred to a nice bull, but he's non traditional. She'll calve around March, and then we have a choice of several traditional AI bulls to use, probably depending on her test results for color, but it is not the sole criteria.
Macey is extremely short but as you saw from the photo quite long, and has a beautiful udder for both her age and the apparent volume, so we want to do right with whom we breed her to for however many calves she has left in her.
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We'll have to do something about her horns though, they're curling around and the tips are starting to put pressure on the forehead. I've never seen horns like that. Pictures to follow...
