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After a while, it can be what you like best, too. Do the same thing every day – that is what they like best. Don’t let anyone ever tell you a Dexter cannot be milked! After an entire summer of training one of the most stubborn gals ever, we can tell you, it can be done! Routine is the key to the heart and mind of a Dexter. We love the closeness we have with our herd twice a day for milking, training them to become docile milkers, and teaching them polite manners in the milking parlor has been very rewarding. A contented cow is a joyful thing to behold! On a small scale, one can maintain a humane approach to dairying, so that the care for the cows is as important as the milk they give. The milk is as clean and fresh as can be! Our cattle have access to pasture year-round. All other feed is grass and alfalfa hay purchased from neighboring farms. We do feed a little grain to bring the cows into the stall to milk, about a handful each time. We pasture our cattle and use no drugs or other additives in their feed or care. A little Dexter is a wealth of treasured milk that can be used in so many ways! A favorite recipe is to soak steel-cut oats overnight in the buttermilk, then cook it up in the morning with cinnamon and raisins and see how good breakfast can taste. Voila – homemade butter! And the buttermilk makes great pancakes. But when my cows are off lactation and I go to my Holstein farmer to buy raw milk – wow, what a difference! When I culture the Holstein milk it is literally like cultured water compared to the Dexter milk! The Dexter’s abundant cream comes to the top, and you can scoop it off and save it until you get a quart or so, pop it in the blender, and give it a whirl. Dexter milk is certainly thick and creamy and high in butterfat. The milk has approximately 4.1% butterfat content. Reports from individuals suggest that the production level varies with breeding and feed, but ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 gallons per day. Dexter milk is exquisite, and well worth our efforts. We hope that our model for a Dexter dairy will inspire others, and be an example for others to build their own imaginations on. Our small cattle can do important work for sustainable agriculture. We hope to bring awareness to the importance of raising and farming with Dexter cattle. We have a small herd of eight Dexters presently, and will keep that number below twelve. all our gals and try to choose the best genetics we can find for our breeding program. technician, we had a few calves before long.
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One cow led to one more, and with the help of my neighborly A.I. When I finally moved to our sweet little farm in 1999, I bought my first Dexter – a little dun heifer that came home with us in the back of our pickup truck! My children were leaving the nest, and I was ready to move back to the country. At that time I was a city dweller and was looking for my perfect farm. I first found out about Dexter cattle while surfing the web in 1997. People are demanding fresh wholesome foods, and the local small-scale dairy can provide for these needs.
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Our hope is that Dexter cattle will be a solution to renewed interest in alternative ways to farm. We are one mile off the Scenic Route 90 Wine Trail and hope that our location will attract tourists that are here for the culinary delights the area offers.Īlthough there are a few Dexter dairies in the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, we are not aware of any in the United States. Our farm consists of twelve acres, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. We have been called Finger Lakes Dexter Cattle for the past seven years, but now we are Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery.
![dexture cow dexture cow](https://foggybottomfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/murine_800.jpg)
Excerpted with permission from the January/February 2008 issue of the newsletter of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.Īfter two years of intense planning and construction, we finally have a Dexter dairy.