Welcome Home Petula (How a petulent petula became Nurse cow extraordinaire!)

As some of you may remember; when petulant Petula arrived she gave us our first 'ranching' experience by taking off through the neighbourhood with us and some neighbourhood children, until she found the neighbours herd of rather large Simmentals. Our neighbour, Ron Smith helped to pen her up and load her again and we landed her in a secure stall. OK well that was the plan. Being new, I suggested to hubby that we put a lasso around her neck to get her off the trailer and into the barn. Sounds great doesn't it? That's what 'real cowboys' do. NOT A GOOD IDEA! As soon as she felt the rope tighten on her neck she bolted, pulling that rope, zinging through our hands. I let go when I felt the burn half way across my palm and watched my hubby fall and get dragged through the snow for 50 yards before letting go because he was about to slingshot into a tree. (kinda funny now)
Damn! Now she is loose with a rope around her neck! I high tail it through the snow across the field in the hopes of turning her back before she hits the blind hill on the road but that spurs her into greater speed. On the precipice of the hill she veers into a yard and i figure; great! we can corner her.....ever cornered a snake before? She snakes herself around us and the gathering kids who are all yelling which is of course making her crazier. She ends up back with the Simmentals but this time in a frenzy and with a long rope around her. We try to get the rope but she is too wild by now....and they do have a bull; A BIG CHAROLAIS BULL! So we back off.....Then Ron appears again, "Is this the same day?" he asks dryly. Wait he says, she will come to the feeder. I am terrified she will get strangled by the rope around her neck. Soon enough she goes to the feeder and Ron grabs the end of the rope and somehow ends up yanking her head tight.. Then he fastens a noose around her nose and well, we drag a kicking bawling uncooperative cow back to our place and pen her up......8 hours later we were finally sitting down to supper! Welcome Home Petula

Her first year with us was rocky at best. She immediately took the position of 'boss' cow in our small but growing herd of Dexters. She was small but feisty. She raised a beautiful bull calf though and seemed to keep the coyotes away from the herd. (At this time we were losing lambs right near the house.) So we kept her, hoping she would buddy up to me by the next time she calved. By the next April, I was able to stanchion her, with food, brush her and was pretty sure I would have access to the wonderful milk she could produce. On April 6, 2009 she produced a lovely heifer calf (CW's Pierette) and within 3 days we were trying everything in our power to obtain that precious fluid. Our efforts failed miserably. Petula the witch would have nothing to do with it! She kicked, bawled, fell down and made the effort on our parts a living hell. Each day we would give in and give her calf back to her...Then, because our old cow calved a few days after Petula and SHE allowed me to milk her, I started putting that calf on Pet also. After a few days I let Pet and her 2 calves out and away went Petula with her 2 calves.

In May my 2 other cows had their calves. These 2 cows were to be my 'real' milk cows and I bottle fed their calves for 7 days before I started letting them out with the herd. They came in for thier bottles 2x daily with the milking cows. After about 1 week of them being let out with the herd, the youngest one Mae stopped coming in for milk. That was strange and I began dragging her in anyways and she wasn't all that interested in the milk. She didn't appear sick though and it was then that I noticed she was 'tail gating' on Petula. Black Jack was still coming in once in a while but then I noticed that he too had started nursing off Petula. Petula didn't seem to mind either which surprised me to no end. To make a long story short; that witch, Petula, began to raise all 4 calves and became known as 'Nurse cow extraordinaire!'

On Balance: Big Versus Small

The average size of a cattle breed doesn’t necessarily have a lot of bearing on its ability to transform feed into beef, according to a University of Guelph geneticist. “The research we’ve done here shows there’s not much of a difference for feed efficiency that can be associated with the size of an animal—which was a surprise in a way,” Dr. Jim Wilton, professor emeritus, says.
“The original thinking was that as people bred cattle to be bigger, the cattle would also be more efficient . . . We’ve done a lot of research on these things. We started when the Charolais was coming into Canada.”

Wilton says there are inherent advantages, however, for both large and small cattle. Smaller cattle generally perform better on pasture. Compared to larger animals, they don’t need to move as far to access all the food they need for optimum growth. That may also translate into a marketing advantage for small cattle owners who can meet niche demands for grass-fed and naturally-raised beef.

The big beef animal advantage lies with logistics. In feedlots, larger animals do not have a problem getting all the food they need for optimum growth. And with the larger size, it doesn’t take as many animals to produce the same amount of beef as with smaller animals.
For producers, this translates into fewer cattle to be handled. For packers, it costs about the same to process a large cattle beast as it does a smaller one.

But herein lies the 'nail in the coffin' so to speak concerning those larger feed lot cattle; "Animals raised in factory farms are given diets designed to boost their productivity and lower costs. The main ingredients are genetically modified grain and soy that are kept at artificially low prices by government subsidies. To further cut costs, the feed may also contain “by-product feedstuff” such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers, and candy. Until 1997, U.S. cattle were also being fed meat that had been trimmed from other cattle, in effect turning herbivores into carnivores. This unnatural practice is believed to be the underlying cause of BSE or “mad cow disease.”₁

A high-grain diet can cause physical problems for ruminants—cud-chewing animals such as cattle, dairy cows, goats, bison, and sheep. Ruminants are designed to eat fibrous grasses, plants, and shrubs—not starchy, low-fiber grain. When they are switched from pasture to grain, they can become afflicted with a number of disorders, including a common but painful condition called “sub acute acidosis.” Cattle with sub acute acidosis kick at their bellies, go off their feed, and eat dirt. To prevent more serious and sometimes fatal reactions, the animals are given chemical additives along with a constant, low-level dose of antibiotics. Some of these antibiotics are the same ones used in human medicine. When medications are overused in the feedlots, bacteria become resistant to them. When people become infected with these new, disease-resistant bacteria, there are fewer medications available to treat them." I am sure you have heard of E. coli O157:H7. It developed in feedlots because the cattle literally live and eat each others shit!

Well, we don't want that now do we? So what advantages are there to eating grass fed beef or should we just quit eating meat? Omega-3s! Meat from grass-fed animals has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain- fed animals. Omega-3s are called "good fats" because they play a vital role in every cell and system in your body. For example, of all the fats, they are the most heart-friendly. People who have ample amounts of omega-3s in their diet are less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat. Remarkably, they are 50 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack. Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well. People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity), or Alzheimer's disease.

Meat and dairy products from grass-fed animals are the richest known source of another type of good fat called "conjugated linoleic acid" or CLA. When cattle are raised on pasture and forages, their products (meat and milk) contain from three to five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets. (A steak from the most marbled grass-fed animals will have the most CLA ,as much of the CLA is stored in fat cells.) CLA may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer.

This is exactly where the Dexter cattle excels. 'The little cow with a Big future!' not only lives well on forage but thrives on it! And they are wonderful milk producers too. Dexters originated in the southern part of Ireland where they were bred by small landowners and wandered around the mountainous districts in an almost wild state. They were bred for their foraging ability, milk production and docile temperament. They thrive in hot and cold climates and do well outdoors all year round. They are extremely fecund and calve without difficulty. As a duo purpose animal, being equally adept at producing both milk and meat the Dexter is truly the perfect little family cow. Pound for pound a Dexter costs less to get to the table, producing both nutritious milk and high quality lean meat.

₁ Grassfed Basics