Reflections of owning Dexter Cows...
June 29, 2020
Well this up coming August of 2020 it will be four years we have been owners of a breed of cow that has truly changed our lives completely. The things we have learned have been so much it would take a book to write it all down! I have finally gotten with my wonderful husband Marvin Golden and he has shown me how I can start my blog. We presently own 19 head of cows. Looking back we had so much to learn and made mistakes along the way but each year it gets a little easier as we slide into a routine of knowing what we have to do.
We presently have 2 herd groups but will soon divide them into 3 groups. We have the Teenager group and the adult group. Although I love both, my favorite group is the teenagers. They always make me laugh. So easy to work with too. Never seem to mind being handled or directed somewhere else and of course they love apple cookies! They also love visitors. The last few days have been unbelievably HOT & HUMID. Very typical for South Georgia. You kind of forget about this type of weather because spring and fall and winter are absolutely wonderful! I hate summer....you can only work early in the am or late in the pm.
This evening I went out and sat down in the teenagers pasture. Immediately they all cam around me to figure out why is the human smaller than us? They sniffed my hat....my shoes...and my love bug Sela had to really get close and sniff my face I guess to make sure I had not died or something. Dexters are so curious and want to figure out whatever you are doing. Me sitting down on the ground was something they had never seen before.
We weaned Curly from her calf yesterday. Curly is the last of my first herd of Dexters that were horned. She has given us 4 wonderful calves during her time with us. Curly has been boss cow for 4 years. She has ruled the herd with her horns and everyone scatters when she comes up to eat from any trough. We decided at the beginning of this year we would process her after weaning her last calf. She has taught us extreme patience beyond words! She has also taught us that she is very, very smart and do not take her for a dumb ole cow either. However, her time is done. It will be odd to not see her in the herd in a couple more weeks. Yet at the same time it will be blessing to have her gone knowing she won't hurt any more cows with her horns again.