Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:40 pm
I hope everyone does not mind me repeating this warning on the website again, about the early sexual maturity of dexters.
Female dexter calves really can get served by a bull at at very young age. The youngest I have heard of in this area is one who calved at only eleven and a half months.i.e. served by a bull when only two and a half months old! She required a caesarian, and she and the calf required lots of care, but pulled through.
The other day I had a phone call from an owner whose heifer had just calved to his surprise at 14 months. He has had dexters for a couple of years and said that he had been told that it was fine to keep the bull in until heifer calves were 6 months old. Every year I hear of several similar stories, some with happy outcomes, some not.
It is not an easy situation to know how to handle, other than extreme vigilence. I decided last year to run all those with heifer calves in with the bull as soon as they calved, and thought this was the obvious solution. However, difficulties arose when, after removing the bull, I found one or 2 cows had not held and so I then had the situation of having to run the bull with them again, with an older heifer calf at foot.
Some owners leave the bull in, and then inject the heifers to bring them bulling, but this is not 100% reliable nor do I personally like routinely interfering with natural body rythmns or the possible damage of heifers being served at a young age.
This is not a "holier than thou" preaching. I have a bull who can scale any gate/go through electric fences/hedges etc to be with the girls. He is a man with a mission and keeps me busy making Fort Knox! As I don't like calving in the summer, I hired him out last year. However, I curentlyhave an 18 month old heifer about to calve that he must have served on about his last day on the farm!
Moral: Just watch those heifer calves and watch for telltale signs such as walking stiffly, tail out and possibly some bleeding.
Female dexter calves really can get served by a bull at at very young age. The youngest I have heard of in this area is one who calved at only eleven and a half months.i.e. served by a bull when only two and a half months old! She required a caesarian, and she and the calf required lots of care, but pulled through.
The other day I had a phone call from an owner whose heifer had just calved to his surprise at 14 months. He has had dexters for a couple of years and said that he had been told that it was fine to keep the bull in until heifer calves were 6 months old. Every year I hear of several similar stories, some with happy outcomes, some not.
It is not an easy situation to know how to handle, other than extreme vigilence. I decided last year to run all those with heifer calves in with the bull as soon as they calved, and thought this was the obvious solution. However, difficulties arose when, after removing the bull, I found one or 2 cows had not held and so I then had the situation of having to run the bull with them again, with an older heifer calf at foot.
Some owners leave the bull in, and then inject the heifers to bring them bulling, but this is not 100% reliable nor do I personally like routinely interfering with natural body rythmns or the possible damage of heifers being served at a young age.
This is not a "holier than thou" preaching. I have a bull who can scale any gate/go through electric fences/hedges etc to be with the girls. He is a man with a mission and keeps me busy making Fort Knox! As I don't like calving in the summer, I hired him out last year. However, I curentlyhave an 18 month old heifer about to calve that he must have served on about his last day on the farm!
Moral: Just watch those heifer calves and watch for telltale signs such as walking stiffly, tail out and possibly some bleeding.
