Howdy from Texas!

[March Hare]

We are in SE Texas. We have a few head of Dexter cattle we are raising for home beef. My daughters and I also show them at local breed shows. I found this thread to get more information on training their horns. We love our Dexters and hope to have our first homegrown, grassfed beef this fall/winter. The horns have to be dime diameter at the tips to be shown, so I am heavily considering horn knobs. We don’t mind the horns, and it teaches the bossy mini donkey respect. We respect our cattle, and don’t tolerate pushy behavior with their horns or bodies. We have 3 of the 4 that are halter trained, and 1 of those is fine once you catch him, the catch is the fun part. The other 2 you can walk up to and halter. The 4th we got as a 2 year old cow in a cow calf pair, and she had little human contact other than occasional worming/vaccination in the chute. This left her shy, and she passed this on to her son. He was 3 months old and scared to death when we brought them home. They will take cookies from our hands, and he will tolerate petting while he is eating most days. He has come a long ways from the white eyed freak out when we brought him and momma home.

My heifer was my 20th anniversary present, and I love my “Annie” we will have her bred the first time this year. Our first time calving experience with the older cow was a nightmare. The calf had her front legs all the way back and suffocated before the vet could get here to help her deliver. Just one of those things, but very disappointing.

We also have chickens for eggs, and my daughters raise rabbits for meat and show, and have built up pretty nice college savings doing well in the shows.

Looking forward to learning here. Maybe I will train my heifer and our next steer to pull my garden cart to help with chores with what I am learning here!

Tonya
March Hares Rabbitry
Middle Age Spread Dexters

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