Dexter cattle

I'm looking to buy a crush shortly as part of getting a herd #, will a normal sized crush be alright for Dexter cattle? I was looking on DoneDeal at ones from Bo Steel in Loughrea, has anyone bought off them, are ye satisfied with their product?

Track9

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm looking to buy a crush shortly as part of getting a herd #, will a normal sized crush be alright for Dexter cattle? I was looking on DoneDeal at ones from Bo Steel in Loughrea, has anyone bought off them, are ye satisfied with their product?

Bo Steel is on my Shortlist as planning to upgrade our Cattle Handling facilities shortly.

gozunda

Came across this on guy with Dexter cattle in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNCPdG8jSKI

Some other interesting videos.

He's a small scale producer

in Lansing, NY, in operation since 1804. We are a diversified livestock farm, providing high quality, healthy meats directly to consumers in our community. All our livestock is grown using a grass-based diet, and we focus on a low-stress life for our animals. We operate our farm using sustainable practices, building healthier soil every year through innovative grazing methods. We believe a small family farm can still be a viable business in today’s “bigger is better” world, and that small farms supplying locally grown food to their communities can create a more resilient, healthy, and meaningful agricultural syste

Yeah, watched most of his videos

gozunda

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah, watched most of his videos

What do think of his setup?

gozunda

gozunda wrote: »

What do think of his setup?

I'd have to watch them again to give a decent opinion tbh, which might tell a story of it's own. Credit to him for making the videos and sharing his opinions. He's *going* a positive way with grazing, but his thinking isn't there yet. There's a lot more he could do with that farm, but sure couldn't we all. I wouldn't make hay for example, buy in someone else's cheap nutrients while improving your own place with grazing. Some of his accounting would clash with how I'd do mine, he might end up costing himself in the long run, again he's going a positive direction by doing them in the first place but he seems a bit stuck. Another place where he seems stuck is the blurb you quoted above, it focuses on farm practices. The only people interested in that are those answering survey questions who want to be seen to be virtue signaling. Farm practices are for the farm, and farmers. Selling is a different animal altogether. These practices will quite soon be seen to be a commoditisation all of their own. We run full tilt from one race to the bottom straight to another. "Grass fed" is probably the most popular example atm.

I enjoyed watching them.

gozunda

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'd have to watch them again to give a decent opinion tbh, which might tell a story of it's own. Credit to him for making the videos and sharing his opinions. He's *going* a positive way with grazing, but his thinking isn't there yet. There's a lot more he could do with that farm, but sure couldn't we all. I wouldn't make hay for example, buy in someone else's cheap nutrients while improving your own place with grazing. Some of his accounting would clash with how I'd do mine, he might end up costing himself in the long run, again he's going a positive direction by doing them in the first place but he seems a bit stuck.

I enjoyed watching them.

Yeah I have some of the same thoughts tbf. But he seems to be able to make a return from a small farm (by US standards) all the same and fair play to him. I've always liked dexters as breed especially their ease of handling - I think that's why he said he chose that particular breed. I didn't even know they had them in the US.

_Brian

gozunda wrote: »

Came across this on guy with Dexter cattle in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNCPdG8jSKI

Some other interesting videos.

He's a small scale producer

Nice video to watch.
Two bulls seems allot for 10 breeding cows and I can’t see them having the land to expand to where two bulls would be warranted.

Market would be my big fear. Not being able to bio them into a trailer and sell in local mart would be a disadvantage

Deub

_Brian wrote: »

Nice video to watch.
Two bulls seems allot for 10 breeding cows and I can’t see them having the land to expand to where two bulls would be warranted.

Market would be my big fear. Not being able to bio them into a trailer and sell in local mart would be a disadvantage

From what I remember, he has 2 bulls because he doesn’t sell all the calves. So one bull has the “old” cows and the other one, the heifers. He has a spreadsheet to know which cows have to go with each bull.
I like his videos but I agree that he is not 100% there. He is promoting his food as better quality but raises meat chicken in, what seem, small chicken tractors.
He seems to manage a living because he is good at marketing. Having a youtube channel has 2 advantages:
- he receives revenue from his videos
- local people can see how the animal are treated and I am sure he advertises his channel on the markets

Holly Tree Farm

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm looking to buy a crush shortly as part of getting a herd #, will a normal sized crush be alright for Dexter cattle? I was looking on DoneDeal at ones from Bo Steel in Loughrea, has anyone bought off them, are ye satisfied with their product?

Hi did you get your herd #? If so what size cattle crush did you go for?
We're trying to get things into place to apply for a herd number ourselves and like you are going for Dexters, due to the amount and quality of land we have. We will only have a heifer with calf running with our sheep, so we only need a basic crush gate and just wondered what you went for in the end?

lab man

I wrote u up soon smallholding but anyway theres an auction in portlaoise tmrw. If you check hennessey auctions on Facebook you'll see the pictures

tanko

I see there's a sale of Dexter cattle on Marteye at 7.30.

tanko

And we're off.

little bit of help

Do you sell dexters to the factory or do you have butchers lined up to slaughter them? Is there much of a market for them? I know aldi sell some dexter meat but I'm wondering how you where do you go with finished dexter cattle?

n1st

I'm interested in trying some Dexters this year, do you have to find someone to slaughter and buy or is there somewhere to sell?