SSDreamin Blessings and curses

[SSDreamin]

Denim Deb
Today 4:56 pm

I want little cows too! Love the barn.


moolie
Today 5:46 pm

Love the photos, what a beautiful barn and your cows are adorable smile (as is your dog!) I didn't realize, although I'm sure I just missed it somewhere, that Ice Cream was a miniature.

** Wish I knew how you guys double quote people! **



Thanks Deb and Moolie! DH made the barn out of a 3 sided shed kit - saved us a ton on what a 'real' barn would've cost! I do pick on him a bit though - all our animal building seem to be MUCH nicer than OUR house! I want one of those neat 'windows' the barn has!

Yup, Ice Cream is a mini. She stands at about 32" right now, I think (DH says 36", but I know better - I have a 36" inseam, and I can straddle her, big belly and all, with my feet flat on the ground, and still have 'space' ), but you can't truly measure height until they are 3 yrs old The little guy is about 26" right now. The guy we got him from expects him to stay under 40", and I sure hope so! Once he's less skiddish, I'll try to take a close up pic of his coat- it looks like a brown/black tiger stripe!

 

[Dawn419]

** Wish I knew how you guys double quote people! **

I just use the Quote button (above the row of smilies) and then copy/paste what I want to quote. If you want to add the persons name, just do this (without the spaces) in the first quote :

[ quote = Dawn419 ] insert content here [ /quote ]
Doc is usually smiling in his pix due to some smart a## comment made right before I snap the pic!

 

[the funny farm6]

so very cute!!!

if you dont mind my asking, how much milk do the little cows give a day? and do you know about how much they eat per day compaired to a regular size cow? and about how much do they cost?

i have been dreaming of a cow but any dairy breed here is $1000.00+, not an opption right now. we have a chance to get an angus mix hefer calf, and there is a local guy that will insimenate with dairy breed. so her calves would be 1/2 dairy. and could keep her hefer calf. and just keep breeding back to dairy breed bulls.

or wait and save for a dairy cow.

 

[BarredBuff]

Love the photos! I WANT YOUR MOO!!!

 

[moolie]

so very cute!!!

if you dont mind my asking, how much milk do the little cows give a day? and do you know about how much they eat per day compaired to a regular size cow? and about how much do they cost?

i have been dreaming of a cow but any dairy breed here is $1000.00+, not an opption right now. we have a chance to get an angus mix hefer calf, and there is a local guy that will insimenate with dairy breed. so her calves would be 1/2 dairy. and could keep her hefer calf. and just keep breeding back to dairy breed bulls.

or wait and save for a dairy cow.

I'm also curious about this, even in ballpark terms

 

[SSDreamin]

Love the photos! I WANT YOUR MOO!!!

She'll have to have babies sometime

 

[SSDreamin]

Funny Farm & Moolie: The shortest answer is It Depends Ice Cream is a Jersey/Black Angus cross (3/4 Jersey, 1/4 Angus). Our new bull is an opposite cross - 3/4 Angus, 1/4 Jersey. We chose these mixes for our 'herd' because then we can have the best of both worlds - heifers with strong milk genes, males (soon to be steers ) with strong Black Angus genes. Ice Cream is expected to give anywhere from 3 to 5 gallons of milk per day (a full size Holstein will give up to 8 gallons per day, by comparison), with lots of butterfat for the REALLY yummy stuff Miniature cattle need 30% of the feed of a full sized animal, and you get 70% of the meat from them! You can support 4 mini's per acre of good pasture and they aren't super heavy so they don't harm the turf - they just 'mow the grass', and haying them through the winter is very economical (Ice Cream went through 25 square bales over this past winter). Now, the rough part: Cost. Up here, a nice heifer from good lines is anywhere from $2,500 and up - saw one Foundation for $35,000 Ice Cream is NOT registered, and never can be. The bull can never be registered either (the animal must be 7/8 whatever breed to be eligible to be registered, or 15/16 to be considered Foundation), which means that, no matter how cute they will be, their offspring can't be registered. I really don't care about paperwork, to be honest, so we got both our animals at a fair price. I know, from talking to someone on this board ( ), that prices vary DRASTICALLY (I hear mini's are going for a couple hundred dollars down south ). It also matters how big are you willing to go - a 42" mini will sell for a lot less than a 38" one. Micro-mini's (36" and under, I believe) bring a higher price (that's why I have been hoping Ice Cream stays at or below 36", to up the price of her calves ) Now, having said all that, our plans have changed a bit. DH is as crazy about Ice Cream as I am, and has been hinting that he wants to keep at least 3 of her heifers to build our herd with, which would also mean the possibility of another bull, for a grand total of 6! Having grown up on a farm with Holstein's, I have to be honest - mini's are MUCH less work! Less poo (and, strangely enough, not so 'loose' either, which makes cleaning out the pen SO much easier ) and easier births (so I'm told - we won't get to find that out for a while yet :/ ). Dexters are also great miniatures - naturally small, good milk producers and very friendly. I just had to have the big doe eyes though One negative with mini's is, you either have to sit right on the floor to milk them, or build them some sort of ramp and train them to use it. Since they are just becoming popular, you can also have issues when it comes time to breed a heifer. We have to go back to the farm we got both ours from, across the State. Once the little guy is ready to do his thing, we can 'rent him out' locally, for mini's AND for downbreeding, which will offset his costs.

Funny Farm, How much of a cross is the cow you are interested in? Depending on percentage, you could have a good dairy calf right off the bat - a 1/2 & 1/2, bred to a 100%, will usually throw a 75% calf, I think If we end up taking Ice Cream to be bred this time, it will be to a 7/8 Jersey, which should give us an 80% calf

 

[the funny farm6]

She is 100% meat. She is angus with a small amount of herford. She has all blacks and a few black with bald faces. And 1 or 2 that are brown. Can't remember if any of those have white faces. But there is a guy in the area that has semen from many different kinds of bulls. I know that the horseshoer had his cow bred by a pure jersy bull. He also had gurnsey and another dairy breed I wonder if he would have any from a "mini" breed.

I would get SOME milk from her and could keep a heffer calf from her. The calf would be 50/50 and could breed back to a dairy breed. I have been thinking on this as I can get a weaned calf from her for $200. Wonder what the size of the calf would be if he did have a mini bull?

Things to think on...

 

[the funny farm6]

She would be full size also.

There is a lady 60-80 mines from me with mini longhorns. They started at 1200.00 for bull calves. She had a hefer for 1000.00 but she wouldn't breed back. So she was pet only.

 

[Denim Deb]

I hope when I finally do get my farm, I can find some mini cows for a decent price. I'm thinking I'd like to raise some and have a bull for stud services.