Lonely heifer

[Fen Farm Dexters]

We added a 12 month old heifer last September to our herd,but the others still shun her and barge her away. She cuts a lonely figure, sitting on her own and often grazing alone. She is hopefully in calf, having run with our hired bull.
Will the others eventually integrate her, or is there anything we can do? Will it be better perhaps once she has a calf? She is red, incidentally, and all the others are black.

[Saffy]

Unfortunately I don't have the answer but usually my dexters arrived here in pairs, only one arrived on her own and she never really fully integrated, not quite as bad as yours but she was always bottom of the pecking order.

Perhaps yours will find a friend later on with a young heifer when it is shut away from its mum for weaning?

Stephanie

[jimbo]

Cattle really are strange characters. I recently bought two Dexters and around the same time bought six Highland x stots and three Longhorn x's (2 heifers and a stot). After we had them all sorted out we put the two Dexters and the two Longhorn heifers in with our two pet heifers, a BB and British White. All the stots were put out to the hill field ten days before the heifers.
We now have two very distinct herds on the hill. The Highland x's and the rest. The Longhorn stot has joined the heifers.
By the way, the Dexters are the bosses.
I wouldn't worry about your heifer, they have a way of working things out, even racist cows.

[Bridgehouse]

I had a similar situation with a red heifer. I had her for three years. She was always with the herd in the field, but they would not let her settle to eat at the ring feeder with them. I used to give her a pile of haylage seperately. I had a couple of other reds, but they were strong characters so the others didnt try and mess with them.

[ann]

I have both reds and blacks and because I run mainly red bulls it is not unusual for my black cows to have red calves but the colors do often tend to stick together and I have had incidences when for some particular reason one is picked on by the rest, if your heifer is in calf to a black bull and has a black calf she will probably be accepted by the rest of the gang. If its red well she will be starting her own little group.

[Rob R]

Dexters are definitely racist, no two ways about it, but I have never experienced it within the breed, usually it is just them shunning and/or bulling the non-Dexters.

[davidw]

I've a red cow that is always bullied by my other Dexters. All my other cattle push each other around, but it doesn't seem to be serious. One day A is pushing B around, the next day B is doing the pushing. But this one is always on the receiving end, and is always the last to the feed, except when we make a special effort to make sure she gets her share. She has had two black calves, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Her older calf is one of the gang, her younger one less so, but she is always left on her own. I just keep her with the youngstock. She seems happier with them and its less stressful for all concerned.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

12 years ago I bought an 11 month old heifer, red, naturally polled. At the time my own small herd were horned. Despite being very calm, easily approached and indeed can usually be haltered in an open field, Saltaire Drill always has been and still is the boss of the entire herd, admittedly now dehorned.

Duncan

[moomin]

If I bring a single cow [heifer]into the herd i always buddy her up with another cow [heifer] of a similar age so she always has a friend. The best friend cow [heifer] must be from about the middle of the bunt [pecking] order, not top or bottom. You could try this now.
Leave them together for about a fortnight before introducing them into the main herd. There will always be some disruption until they sort out their social order again. Its all about cattle psychology really. Think bovine!! Good book to read is Cattle Behaviour by Phillips.
Di