Meet Tama Sundance

Well, about 1,100 miles later we finally have our new bull, Tama Sundance, home safe and sound. Except for some storms on Tuesday morning our trip was fairly uneventful as far as things go when you are hauling a bull half way across the country. Sundance was a good passenger who didn't make any noise and drank plenty of water along the way. It was also a relief to see him walk right out of the trailer and have some grass, drink some clean water, and eat a little all within the first five minutes on the farm.

As you can see from the picture above he truly does look like a bull, which is something that we were really looking for. But, beyond looking like a bull we think he will add a lot to our herd. He has great feet and seems to pass that on to his progeny (good feet are an issue in the Dexter breed). Also, the folks we bought him from feel like he improved the udders of his offspring as well.

Another plus for him is that he is red and homozygous from the dun color. That was a nice addition for us because we have a growing number of dun cows and heifers in our herd and I just plain like that color. Also, the red is nice to have becasue we do have a red heifer now and I wouldn't mind adding more so that we can have a representation of all the colors (black, dun, red).

All in all I'm glad to have him here on Stoneyfield Farm. He seems like he is a gentle guy and I think will be a great fit for the farm. Right now he is haning out by himself and getting acclamated to the farm, but we can't wait to get him out with some of the herd.

"Why Don't He Write..."

Okay, today's title is a great line from a movie ... anyone know what movie it is from? But, the bigger question is where have I been. For quite awhile now I have been blogging six days a week. In fact I have even come up with posts to put up while I was gone on mission trips and other youth related things. But, for the past month or so blogging has been pretty tough because of all of our projects and farm work. I guess it finally caught up with me and now it has been almost a week since I have posted. But, I have a reason...

We have been on the road for the past few days taking in a wedding and heading all the way to Virginia to go bull shopping. I figured that since we were in the area (well, it was 9 hours from where the wedding was) we might as well go and pick up a nice Dexter bull. Our travels took us to Olde Towne Farm in Virginia and to Tama Sundance (the picture above is from the Olde Towne Farm website because I forgot my camera cord).

Sundance is a great looking bull that we think will add a lot to our herd in years to come and we are excited to see some calves! Hopefully now I can pick-up the blogging again, because there sure is a lot that I need to catch up on.

The One Bad Thing...

As I mentioned earlier I am using the five young heifer calves as a mower behind the house where we are going to construct the shed. I'm really having them gnaw it down to the nubs and attack the bushes and then I'll go through with the mower afterwards to get what is left (which will be shrub stems). It is going really well and it is fun to watch them attack the fresh grass each day. I also like the fact that I can look out our bedroom window in the morning and see them laying down or grazing away!

Except there is one downside ... since they are so close to the house they wake me up every time they moo! Normally the just get going in the morning or when they want some more grass, but last night they really started into it at two in the morning. This made me worried because I assumed it meant something was out there ... and by something I mainly mean Mr. Bull (who also got out yesterday morning).

So, I peered out into the dark night that was also heavily covered by fog and I saw a lumbering mass next to their fence. I wasn't sure what it was, but I just assumed it was the bull. So, I grabbed a flashlight and pulled on my boots ready to try and corral a bull at 2:00 AM. Luckily when I got out there I found it was just the haybine! My mind does play tricks on me in the middle of the night...

Just another one of the joys of our beginning farm.

Not My Favorite, But...

I can't say that our current bull is my favorite Dexter bull, or even close to that. He has give us plenty of frustration with his desire to get out and roam around and he isn't exactly as cuddly (not that you should ever cuddle a bull) as some Dexter bulls that I've bet. But, with all that being said he does have a few redeeming qualities that I don't hate.

He seems to have fleshed out nicely on the spring grass so far (at least comparatively speaking) and it also seems like he is a guy that will get his job done. One other thing is that he is a little smaller in size so I'm hoping he will bring us a couple smaller calves from our two bigger cows. Our big cows hardly even seem like Dexters when you compare them to the others in the herd!

All that being said, I'm still on the hunt for a herd bull that fits us perfectly and will continually improve our herd. We have an uphill battle to get the herd to where I would like it, but this is an okay start.

The Cows are Out ... Again!

Yesterday morning they didn't have school in town so I was able to have soccer practice in the morning at 9:00 AM. I look forward to days like that because then I can get soccer in and move on with the day. But, this particular day practice came at just the wrong time ... just before I was ready to start the phone rang and my wife told me, "the cows are out ... again". I told her to try and keep them on the farm and that I would come home as soon as I could. Luckily only three were able to make the escape, led by the new bull of course.

Being completely honest, our fence really isn't the best but mostly it has been good enough. Rather it has been mostly good enough until the new bull showed up. He likes to test fences and find the weak spots. He has led many revolutions!

Anyways, back to the latest escape. On my way home from soccer practice I was happy to find out that Becca had gotten the two cows back in and that only the bull was still out. He was just contentedly eating grass down in the valley. When I pulled into the drive ... out walked my wife in her muck boots holding a baseball bat (you have to have the proper accouterments when working with a bully bull).

This time though he was very easy to work with. I walked down to the valley, circled around behind him and basically walked him up and into the pen. It was actually pretty surprising! But, I decided that maybe something should be done to stop this from becoming a daily thing so I stopped by the farm store and picked up some poly wire and step-in posts. Now we can put a hot wire around the inside of the pen ... and reacquaint them with electric fence.

The Thing About Grassfed Dexters...

...They won't come to a bucket of grain! Yep, that is one of the downsides to the grassfed cows we have because they just aren't to interested in the sound of grain in a bucket. And, grain in the bucket would have come in handy last night for an hour or more after 10:00 PM when we were out trying to round up our new cow, heifer, and bull. Let's just say it was dark, our flashlights were failing fast, and of course it had to be cold and very windy! But, when it was all said in done all three of them were in a pen. There was just one problem...

All three of them ended up in the main lot where the rest of the cows and heifers were. This would not be that big of a deal except for one little thing. There were four heifers in there that I did not want bred because they were too young. We did the very best that we could, but finally we had to give up after only getting three of them cut out and into a small pen in the corner (I will move them tomorrow). What I wouldn't have given for a lariat last night!

As if that wasn't enough ... I still had a funeral message to prepare. So, if you are of the praying inclination I wouldn't mind if you lifted me up today as I do my very first solo funeral for a man in our church that has been a big help to us. He was one of the great group of men that came out and worked on the house to get us in a finished building before we had to move. His help with the drywall and mudding was invaulable and a true expression of what the Church is supposed to be like.

Nevertheless, the bull is now in with the cows. I guess we will see what Hershey didn't get covered and then I will make sure we have a building up year for bad season calving. Actually, I'm going to think about pulling him out this afternoon. What I really need to do is just weigh the pros and cons. The pro of course is that I would actually get some 2009 calves out of the cows that I know are not bred. The con on the other hand is that it just pushes back my attempt to get on a spring calving schedule back another year for those cows.

We'll just see what happens...

I Fought the Mud...

...And I Won! Yesterday you might remember that the Expedition and the stock trailer were stuck in the mud. But, it was more than just that because inside the stock trailer were three new Dexters for Stoneyfield Farm. It was getting late and we were too far from where they were supposed to be to rig something up, so I just threw a bunch of hay in the trailer and bedded them down for the night. But, today I finally scored a point against the mud!

When I came home from work today I decided I was just going to try and get the truck and trailer on the gravel. I figured if I could do that I could figure something out. So, after a little slow going I was on firmish ground and I thought maybe I could make it to the pen if I took a run at it driving towards it instead of backing up to it. My plan worked and with the help of a cattle panel and a 16 foot gate all three of the new Dexters are in place.

So, you may be wondering why three new Dexters and why now? Well, we are going to need a bull this summer and if I have learned anything over the past couple of years I have learned that it is somewhat difficult to find a decent bull when you need one. So, when I saw this group for sale at a good price I jumped at the opportunity. I figured it was best to at least have something.

This was a package deal though, so I came home Monday (after about 7 hours of driving) with an almost three-year-old bull and cow along with their 7-month old heifer. While he isn't the greatest Dexter bull ever he is a decent looking bull and will work for our herd. The cow and the heifer also have added something to the herd.

I am beginning to think that I want to focus mostly on the dun or red cows mostly for heat resistance and the way they look. So, this summer (maybe after calving) I'm going to sell two black cows and keep these two dun cows. This will help with the money we just spent and will also bring us closer to the dun/red herd I'm looking for.

One more thing ... none of these three are registered yet. That means they don't have names! Do you have any good suggestions?

Eight...TEEN is Enough?

The past couple of days have been pretty eventful around here. Well, I guess they haven't been as eventful around here as it the past couple of days have been eventful on the road! Late Monday morning I was finally able to get away and pick up SGF SANT Hershey. You may remember reading about when the deal was finalized way back in THIS POST, but because of mechanical problems, schedule problems, and weather problems I had not been able to get down there yet! But, now he is home ... along with a cow and heifer!

The traveling actually started on Saturday when I drove up to Dan Butterfield's, of Grandma's Dexters, to pick up a bull calf and two cows that I was going to deliver to Steven in Southern Missouri (you may recognize the name because he comments from time to time). So, late Monday morning I headed out of town and swung by the farm to pick up the trailer and Steven's cows. The driving was uneventful (except for a traffic jam in St. Louis) and so was the unloading (even though it was slightly muddy and 9:00 PM). It was great to finally be able to put a face to the name and chat with Steven and his family. They have some pretty cool things starting up down there so it was neat to see what was going on.

After that I headed on my way to Erik and Marian Van Beever's Five Ponds Farm (with a break for sleep). I arrived there and also enjoyed putting a real live face to the many e-mail conversations we have had. It was neat to see their diverse livestock ranging from sheep and goats to Dexters and of course their Red Wattle Hogs! Of course I picked up Hershey while I was there, but I also had decided to bring back a bred cow and heifer calf they had for sale (Gigi and Tinkerbelle). Hershey looks as great in person as he did in the pictures and I'm looking forward to seeing him mature this summer. I am also pleased with the prospects of Gigi and Tinkerbelle bring to the herd.

So, now there are eighteen Dexters roaming (not so much in the snow I guess) Stoneyfield! If you are scoring at home it adds up like this: 8 cows ... 4 heifers ... 4 steers ... 1 bull calf (to become a steer) ... and of course, 1 Herd Sire!! Don't forget that we have at least three more cows we are expecting to calve. And to think, this started out six months ago as an "experiment"!

**The first picture above is of Hershey of course, and the second is of Tinkerbelle (calf in front) and Gigi (horned). Hopefully I'll be able to post some more pictures soon!**

Winter at Stoneyfield

As I mentioned yesterday I needed to make a trip down to the farm yesterday to do a couple of things for my dad. I was more than excited to have a reason to go down, even if it meant getting behind on my work, because it had been so long since I had a chance to see the herd. As you can see from this picture there is plenty of snow in Southern Iowa right now and even though we had grass stockpiled it is under snow and ice at the moment. So, it seems they spend much of their time up in the front lot where we feed them and where they have water.

Speaking of water ... along with lots of snow it has been really cold lately and we don't have any tank heaters in the cattle pen. So, when I arrived the tanks were solid ice from top to bottom (guess you can't always trust the Amish to do your chores the way you would do them). I spent a while hacking out the ice with an axe, and constantly pushing my cows out of the way so I had room to swing the axe! They were rather friendly today and I was able to get my hands all over them. As you can see from the picture they were also rather thirsty.

The picture on the left is of one of our heifers, Billie of K&K. She came to us from the Anderson farm in Missouri and I think she is shaping up rather nicely under that heavy winter coat. This coming year she will be bred to our incoming herd sire, SGF SANT Hershey, who is also dun. Of course we are hoping that she will throw us a nice little dun heifer calf in 2009, but we will just have to wait and see!

Now, this last picture is ... well, it is of my confusion bull! I call him that because I'm just not sure what to do with this little guy. He is around six or seven months right now and is smaller than everyone else that is younger than him. Because of his lineage there is a possibility that he carries the chondrodysplasia gene, which isn't the best thing if you would like to use him as a sie. So, he will probably end up in someone's freezer. Unless... someone has some non-carrier cows and they would like to use him to bring down their size? I think he has a good look to him for his size and age, but he is just so darn small. Either way, I'm not sure he will be ready to finish next fall!

So, there are some shots of the Stoneyfield herd in the snow. I was very pleased with the way the are looking this winter and I can't wait to see them in the coming spring!

Make sure you check out the blog on Monday because I'm having another farmer question and answer series...

WTB: Livestock Trailer

Well, if you have been following the blog for awhile now you may recognize this picture. It was taken on our trip to Missouri to pick up some Dexters. On that trip we lost a bearing (which we fixed), but Grandpa's Trailer has a little more wrong with it this time! The trailer will need two new axles before we take it out on the road!

That is a pretty big problem ... but, it is magnified by the fact that we have a bull to go pick up in Missouri. So, I'm taking a shot in the dark here.

Do you have, or do you know somebody, or do you know somebody that knows somebody that has a livestock trailer for sale? We need a bumper pull trailer in the 12 foot to 14 foot range (I guess we could deal with a 16 footer, but we would like something smaller). Something that can haul two or three Dexters would be right up our alley! As far as height goes ... well, something between five feet or six feet on the inside would do, but I would consider something a little taller if the price was right.

I'm sorry to post such a boring want ad today, but this is something that we need right now. So, if you are in Iowa (or Missouri) or you know somebody that is with a trailer for sale just let me know! Oh, I guess a rental might work also...

Gerald Fry on Bulls

The whole process surrounding our search for a bull has been very interesting and informational. I have learned quite a bit about what to look for and the signs and measurements that you can use to help choose your bull. I have really taken the old adage that the bull is half your herd to heart and I tried to find something that was more than just male. To that end I have had a lot of help from people in the Dexter community and folks that just plain know cattle.

One guy that I was pointed to quite often was Gerald Fry. He has a website called, Bovine Engineering, that has a lot of information about grassfed beef, selecting genetics, choosing a bull, and so much more. One article that John Potter recently pointed me to is this one titled, "A Well Balanced Bull and the Benefits of Masculinity". It is just a short article, but it is full of great information on selecting a bull.

Mr. Fry describes a well balanced bull with this sentence, "The objective for a well-balanced and functional bull is to get 85% of his cow's settled on first service and do that job on grass and or hay and maintain his body weight." This is something that I couldn't really judge as we picked out our bull, but it is something that I'm going to pay attention to in our future breeding. Mr. Fry also places a lot of emphasis on selecting a bull that is masculine. As I have mentioned in the past this is one thing that has been difficult as we looked for Dexter bulls.

According to the article a good bull will show its masculinity in its head, neck and shoulders. Look at things like the amount of muscle, the thickness of the skin, coarseness of the head hair, position of the legs, and more. A well balanced bull as described in the article will be a benefit to any beef herd.

I look forward to continuing to learn about selecting a herd bull so we can begin improving our herd through our breeding. Do you have any other links or thoughts on selecting bulls? Let me know if you do!

We Found Our Bull!?!

Well, I think it is safe to let the cat out of the bag finally since I have signed a contract and sent out the deposit! After much searching, learning, discussing, and all of that good stuff I think we have settled on a bull for our herd. Finding a Dexter Bull that I was at least partially satisfied with has proven more difficult that I thought it would be. If you remember back in October I wrote THIS POST and THIS POST about selecting a bull. Both of those posts linked to articles and forum posts discussing the qualities and traits you should look for when picking out your bull. Things were more difficult because it just doesn't seem like there are a lot of good Dexter bulls out there ... I have a couple theories on why that is, but I won't get into that now.

So, here are a few requirements that were on my short list ... He had to look like a bull, not an old cow or plain steer ... He needed to be dun or carry dun genes ... He needed a decent background ... He needed to be old enough to work next summer and old enough to get a better idea of his looks ... And, he needed to be horned or dehorned. Well, I think I did pretty goods fulfilling those requirements and I may have even ended up a little better.

With out further ado let me introduce to you, SGF SANT Hershey! Here are the details ... The "SGF" stands for Spruce Grove Farms which is John Potter's farm in Michigan. Mr. Potter is a well respected breeder of Dexters and Dexter bulls and I had a chance to have a great conversation with him as I was learning about bull selection. In fact I would have loved to get a bull directly from him, but at the time I talked with him he didn't have anything that fit my bill. The "SANT" speaks to the year he was born and his sire who is Antares. Antares seems to be a pretty popular bull as evidenced by the 52 Dexters that he has sired! His dam is also out of Spruce Grove Farm's breeding so that is a plus. He is horned as you can see ... he is dun as you can see ... but, one little bonus that you can't see is that he carries a gene for red. So, if we had a cow that carried the red gene we would have the possibility of a red calf!

Hershey is about 20 months old so he will be plenty ready by next summer and we also have a decent idea of how he is going to turn out based on his looks right now. He has a nice set of horns on him so we will have to give him respect, but he also can be gentle and I have pictures of his former owners with their arms around his neck. Gentleness is one of the traits in Dexters that led us to bring them to our farm. All in all we are pretty excited about bringing him home and I'm really looking forward to the 2009 calving season!

He will be coming from Marian and Erik at Five Ponds Farm in Southern Missouri. They have be a joy to work with as we have gone through the whole process and I'm looking forward to meeting them in person when we get a chance to pick Hershey up (not sure when yet). If you are interested in Dexters, Navajo-Churro sheep, Red Wattle hogs, or even daylilies and hostas I encourage you to check out their website. They have a lot of neat things going on at there farm.

Hopefully in the next month or so I will be able to post pictures of Hershey at Stoneyfield!

More on Choosing a Bull

This morning I read another article about selecting a bull. I have been mulling over this bull problem for a few days now, namely the fact that I'm going to need a bull in the next six or seven months. With that in mind I've been trying to read as much about selecting a bull as I can. One problem is that it is hard to find information specifically on selecting a Dexter bull.

The article I read this morning was titled, "What Does a Good Bull Look Like? Do You Know?" It just happens to be from The Stockman Grass Farmer and is by Allan Nation (the author of Quality Pasture). Mr. Nation talks about a visit he had in 2003 to a large ranch that seemed to, in his words, "be doing everything right." He was impressed with the steps they were taking to improve their herd until he came to their bull development area. The area was full of steer-looking bulls. Basically, bulls that looked more like steers than big, masculine, mature bulls. The man who was running the bull development said that he automatically culled any animal that was big in the shoulders because that would mean calves that were difficult to birth. According to Mr. Nation (who wrote the article) and Gerald Fry who was also at the ranch at the time that is wrong approach to take. Mr. Fry says that a good bull, "will look like a buffalo. "It will have a wide chest, a large head and big shoulders." This statement goes against much of the thinking in the seedstock world these days. The article again repeats the importance of having a quality bull to increase the level of your heard. While a good cow can make a clone of itself even if the sire of the calf is sub-par (something called cytoplasmic inheritance), a cow can never improve upon herself unless she is bred to a higher quality bull.

Another thing that I found very interesting in this article was this statement, "Highly masculine males create highly feminine daughters. The shape of a cow's udder is determined by the shape of her father's scrotal sack. Big shoulders on a male create a big butt on a female. It's the yin and the yang. Good males create better females." I have been told to look for big and muscular rear end on my potential bulls. According to this I should be focusing on the front end of my bull and not as much on the back end. If you are interested in selecting a bull I encourage you to check out this article. I found it pretty interesting even though it may have added to my confusion.

So, what do you think? Have any thoughts on what I should look for when selecting a bull? Especially a Dexter bull?


The Dexter Bull pictured above is Rainbow Hills Big Mac owned by Silver Maple Dexters. He is classified as excellent (91).

Selecting a Bull

With our growing Dexter herd it is becoming apparent that we are going to need a bull to breed our four cows next summer. We have two that will calve after the new year and then two that will be ready to breed whenever, so we are going to shoot for the summer to give us late March or April 2008 calves. I have been contacting different Dexter breeders in the area in an effort to see what is available, and I have found a few possibilities, but since I have never selected a bull before I decided to do a little research on the subject.

Initially I posted a question on the new Irish Dexter Cattle Forum. Olga from Impromptu Acres had a few good thoughts for me. She wrote, "I wouldn't buy a young calf; a sexually mature (around 12 month old) Dexter has more to judge him by. I would find a bull from a breeder with a large number of animals, whose animals exhibit consistency, and whose animals have the characteristics I'm looking for." Also, she said, "But generally, you look for a herd sire that's going to "fix" the faults of your cows in his offspring. I don't know of anybody who has perfect cows, but we should all strive for a perfect bull. That way the offspring is always an improvement." I think she made a lot of good points in her post and you can read the rest of them in the link. One problem that I am having is finding a mature bull and someone with a large number of cattle. But, I really appreciate the comment about having a perfect bull in order to improve the offspring of our cows. I believe this is something that I am really going to study to gain the knowledge to pick out that "perfect" bull. I have been looking at lots of pictures of Dexter cows and I do find my self thinking a lot of the time, "that is what I want my cows to look like."

HERE is another article that I read about selecting a bull. The author points out, "The choices you make impact your herd in next years calves and further down the line if you keep replacement heifers. If you're building your herd up the bull you choose can map the next dozen years - or make or break your program." This quote really hits home with me because we are looking to build our herd here at Stoneyfield and I realize this bull will have an impact on our following batches of calves if we are keeping back heifers to grow our herd. You can read the article for some other thoughts on selecting a bull if your would like.

On thing about selecting a Dexter bull is that you have a few other things to consider that you normally wouldn't have with other breeds of cattle. First of all you need to remember that the Dexter breed is only moderately popular and there aren't a lot of animals out there to purchase. Also, with Dexters there is always color to be thinking about. Most Dexters are black followed by dun and then red. The colored animals usually bring a premium when they are sold so it does behoove someone to have a bull that at least carries some color. I personally would like to have a dun bull, but we will just have to keep looking.

If you have any other tips on picking out a bull please let me know in the comments section. I need all the help I can get!

P.S. The bull pictured above is "Boxcar". He is a Legacy Dexter which means he comes from some of the older lines of Dexters and has many of the early Dexter traits. He is currently owned by the JAMS Hundred Herd and is possibly for sale if you are in the area and interested. I would be interested if I was in the area!