The Journey of a Beginning Farmer :: As a child I spent most of my life in town living with my mom, but whenever I visited my Dad and his side of the family it was on the farm. From my earliest memories I have always wanted to be a farmer (except when I wanted to be a cowboy). Now, I am trying to fulfill that dream. This will be a journal of that journey :: my research, my joys, my frustrations, and all of the things that go along with the beginning farmer.
We picked up our bull calf yesterday! He's a polled, dun, Dexter, about 6 months old. It was really exciting to finally be bringing our first Dexter home and every gas and food stop we were hanging out around the trailer to watch him. It's like we were expecting him to do a trick or something. :-) But he just stood there... very calmly.
When we finally got home, he had "tears" running down his face and freezing. I thought it might be from getting dust from shavings in his eyes. What do you think?
Steven ... Glad to hear that you picked up your bull calf. Polled and dun ... is there any chance he carries red? That polled gene will be nice to have in the herd if you are interested in selling breeding stock. I have thought about it, but decided that for now we are just going stick with horned and hopefully all three colors (red, dun, black).
As far as the "tears" ... I would guess that it was just cold and maybe breezy. Just keep an eye on it, but probably not a huge deal.
Braeburn (the bull) has been tested for color and is b/b dun I believe. So, he doesn't have any colors but dun. I was hoping that he would end up having red because his grand sire is red, but apparently he doesn't. He's got VERY long hair right now, longer than the other three calves he was with. It will be great to see him shed off in the spring. OH, and today I was able to go out and see him because we got sent home from work because of all the ice coming through. Anyways, he's all clean on his face again. The frozen tears and ice sickles are gone and his eyes look clean again.
Glad to hear he is doing well. I have to admit that dun is my favorite color in the Dexters. I know that red is the most valuable and rare, but I just really like the looks of the dun. We have three dun cows and one dun heifer along with a black cow that carries dun. So over half of our herd gives us the possibility of dun ... especially with our dun bull who will be arriving soon.
Man I can't wait until spring 2009 when we will be having our own calves!
5 comments:
We picked up our bull calf yesterday! He's a polled, dun, Dexter, about 6 months old. It was really exciting to finally be bringing our first Dexter home and every gas and food stop we were hanging out around the trailer to watch him. It's like we were expecting him to do a trick or something. :-) But he just stood there... very calmly.
When we finally got home, he had "tears" running down his face and freezing. I thought it might be from getting dust from shavings in his eyes. What do you think?
I dunno... my husband always starts leaking out of his eyeballs when it's cold, and we're not sure why. Maybe that's what your calf was up to. : )
Steven ... Glad to hear that you picked up your bull calf. Polled and dun ... is there any chance he carries red? That polled gene will be nice to have in the herd if you are interested in selling breeding stock. I have thought about it, but decided that for now we are just going stick with horned and hopefully all three colors (red, dun, black).
As far as the "tears" ... I would guess that it was just cold and maybe breezy. Just keep an eye on it, but probably not a huge deal.
Braeburn (the bull) has been tested for color and is b/b dun I believe. So, he doesn't have any colors but dun. I was hoping that he would end up having red because his grand sire is red, but apparently he doesn't. He's got VERY long hair right now, longer than the other three calves he was with. It will be great to see him shed off in the spring.
OH, and today I was able to go out and see him because we got sent home from work because of all the ice coming through. Anyways, he's all clean on his face again. The frozen tears and ice sickles are gone and his eyes look clean again.
Glad to hear he is doing well. I have to admit that dun is my favorite color in the Dexters. I know that red is the most valuable and rare, but I just really like the looks of the dun. We have three dun cows and one dun heifer along with a black cow that carries dun. So over half of our herd gives us the possibility of dun ... especially with our dun bull who will be arriving soon.
Man I can't wait until spring 2009 when we will be having our own calves!
Post a Comment