Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Smallhold Farming and Rural Living => Livestock and Growing on a larger scale => Topic started by: Trillium on April 25, 2011, 00:29

Title: cattle for small holdings
Post by: Trillium on April 25, 2011, 00:29
Here's a breed of cattle smallholders could conisder. They becoming very popular in the US and moving into Canada.

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Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: joyfull on April 25, 2011, 09:13
Dexters are lovely, Grannie Annie and I bought one (dead) between us last year and the meat was delicious. Only ever seen them as black coloured but it seems they come in 3 colours, black, red and dun  :D
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: GrannieAnnie on April 25, 2011, 12:52
Yes he was delicious wasn't he Joy???

This is was he!
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: joyfull on April 25, 2011, 12:58
only a little bit of stewing beef and mince left  :(
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: GrannieAnnie on April 25, 2011, 12:59
I cooked a bit of topside yesterday, got another 2 bits in the freezer I think, but that's about it!!!
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: John on April 26, 2011, 10:27
Dexters have been a smallholder favourite for many years. It's quite fascinating to look at the size of cattle over the last 100 years, they've gone from small to large to small to large again depending on the breeder's needs.
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: GrannieAnnie on April 26, 2011, 14:10
Shame we couldn't afford the Lincolnshire red he had this year!  :D

Picture was taken last year, so its twice the size now!
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: Redgoat on May 08, 2011, 20:29
Smallholders should always consider one of the rarer breeds. Dexter as mentioned above is a good one. Others are Irish Moilled, Red Poll or a Beltie  :D
Title: Re: cattle for small holdings
Post by: Tiggs on May 14, 2011, 19:48
Belties are definitley a good choice :). They are almost as hardy as the highland, require little shelter, just hay, if there is little grass otherwise they will be fine. They also have very little back covering of fat as unlike other breeds, Belties have a duble layer of hair for warmth instead of fat. We currently have a 10 month old Beltie bull at the moment at the farm, very docile, and fairly easy to halter train after he dragged me around the field and barn a couple of times!!!