Just a little advice, cows are actualy more picky, and sensetive to what they eat, and I have found through the years that horses make the best clean up crew. The grass and weeds you see horses leave is by thier droppings, and because they have a huge selection, youll find better and faster weight gains for your beef by running them before the horses, and youll want to add a few more cows. You can run 2 Dexters on the same ground as one standard cow, and thus they actualy more profitable. Your horses will not suffer, and your pastures will look great, folks think I mow my pastures, and fertilize, though I dont do either. I run cattle,then horses and goats together. Plus turkeys, and chickens, some, geese and ducks. Rotate the pastures and they look great.
josh

I've also heard Dexters fit in very well for smaller farms/herds. I was even looking for one locally, but the only breeder I found close had two bull calves and they didn't test. I'm big on the Johne's thing with the goats, I wouldn't want to jeapordize the existing herd, so I simply stopped looking. Someday we'll get cows again, but doesn't look like it'll be anytime soon.

Good luck with your newest addition. Please keep us updated!
Brendasue

Brendasue, all the cattle in Michigan are SUPPOSED to be TB tested yearly. The State has been quite harsh on those who are found with out testing results for any inspector who stops to ask for them.

I plan to take both animals in for TB testing as quick as the weather is warmer. I would imagine we would need to show that for any cattle shows DD wanted to attend. The calf came from a dairy farm, so they would TB test cows yearly to allow milk sales. Heifer is from a family operation, but he had all the answers to questions I asked. Trying to do his as natural as possible, not over vaccination, and TB test does not affect the meat. He eats one of his steer calves each year. He is milking one cow for his family with children, so he wants his cows clean. Those older cows are quite attractive. RFID tagged and registered with DNA testing.

Never heard of Johne's disease. We have lambs yearly for 4-H, but they are purchased each spring. All the sheep in the State must have a tag-of-origin for Scapies. Seller must tag their lambs before they leave the property. One of ours had to be retagged after losing his ear tag. Seller drove up to do the tagging, see how they were growing. Liked what we were doing with them. Lambs did pretty well at Fair for DD.

If you decide to look further, I have found Craigslist helpful in Michigan. Didn't find but two calves in all my upper Indiana searches though. And they were higher priced compared to other sellers. I had to keep checking, calves seem to come and go fast. Usually very different sellers each posting, not repeats. Reds seem to be higher just because of color. Black and duns are as nice or nicer built, but cheaper priced.

I will keep you posted on the saga of the cattle. Here are some photos of DD walking the 4-H, Dutch Belted calf. Hoping he makes weight for Prospect Beef, so he can sell at Fair. He is still on a bottle and pellets, but almost visibly growing. His name is WeBee, you can have a lot of fun with that in baby-talk like kids enjoy doing! I think he and heifer will get along fine, she is a dominant cow in her group of large calves and he knows nothing about how to be a cow. She will run the show.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/576240783yIEKUq