Welcome to Moosters Meadows - home of Irish Dexter Cattle! We strive to breed a truly dual purpose Dexter, providing both excellent beef and milk. All of our Dexters are purebred and registered with the American Dexter Cattle Association (ADCA). We'll be blogging about what goes on here on our little ranch in Wyoming and life with Dexters. Feel free to visit our website as well.







Saturday, March 31, 2012

Raisin

This is Raisin (we used to think he was a girl).  He loves everyone.

He loves to be scratched!
He has eyeballs that can roll around!
He hopes that he's allowed to lick your face --
He has a mother, but he'll be happy to adopt you too!


Happy Spring!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

'Tis the Season


We can't complain about this one!  Meet Euchee Creek's Eclipse, the polled red daughter of Halo and Belle Fourche Washington.  She's a full sister to our Harper (although she's polled and he is horned).  She was a very sturdy 53 pounds!  Halo delivered her with no fuss in the pasture early Friday afternoon.

Elvira gave us a nice little black bull calf last week as well.  He'll be steered - and, although they sometimes have nicknames - we rarely name those guys that are going to be steers.  It definitely helps me to stay somewhat detached from those boys who might end up on my dinner table.



Here's our Carnival wearing her halter.  She's actually doing really well with her weaning now.  Mom Seanna doesn't come around - at all - so Carnival has accepted that her corral mates are her only friends.  Lucky for her (and us) her mates are Yanni,  the spoiled rotten show girl - and Yoko, in halter training mode herself.  All three of them are positively thrilled when the feed bucket shows up and they are all guilty of pocket searching for treats.  It makes getting a picture or two just a bit difficult (see below):

Yanni in her finest begging mode ----


A corral of red girls!

It's now warmer than we can ever remember for a March in Wyoming.  Today we are at 76 degrees and here's the bad news for our local area and most of the surrounding counties:
It's dry as a bone here.  We're seeing green grasses in the pastures, but we're also covered in dry grass that would go up very quickly given any spark.  Rain (without storms) would be appreciated!


Lots of babies still on the way - we've now hit that point where it's a real guessing game as to who is next!  Think heifers!!!

***And in the interest of honesty - and making fun of myself - two of our previous heifers mysteriously and magically  turned into bull calves.  Someday (like now!), I'll learn to go back out after they've been up and around for a day or two and check again for those little dangly things between the hind legs!  I checked them both immediately at birth when those little dangles were still elsewhere or just part of all the birth goo.  Chris will now double check for me too! 


Sunday, March 11, 2012

November in March!

November calved yesterday.  A beautiful 40 pound double polled black heifer!  We watched the entire process from start to finish this time.  November was a real sweetie considering it's her first calf.  She did well in the birthing and took right to the calf (who was up and nursing in no time). 

We're still on watch for one more first timer this week.  Hoping the heifer trend continues!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Triple Play

It seems like we've been waiting forever for the first of the calves to arrive - and today we hit the jackpot!  Three calves from three separate sires from cows that we bought from three different herds.  What are the odds of that?!!

Without further ado:


Meara had a sturdy 55 pound bull calf.  His sire is Belle Fourche Washington.  Hers was our least eventful birth since he was waiting for us early this morning when we went out to check the herd. 



Above is a very lucky daughter of Gladhour Rally.  Rally was obviously in labor, so I grabbed the camera with the big lens and quietly moved to where I could take pictures.  All was going great until little miss was born and Rally began to clean her.  One big strong lick and little miss tumbled head over heels and landed in the creek!  The deep part of the creek near the culvert crossover....

Someone told me today that you do what you have to do - and I did.  Fortunately Chris was filling water tanks within both seeing and hearing distance, so I was able to get his attention.  Then I climbed through the barbed wire fence (I guess, because I don't remember that part) and jumped in to save her.  Slippery when wet barely describes how difficult it was to hoist her from the water (and fend off a very upset momma cow with horns)!  Chris arrived and jumped in beside me so that I could climb out and keep momma away while he picked her up and loaded her in the ATV. 

We moved her to a dry spot well away from the creek and out of the wind.  Momma caught up and started cleaning again right away.  All appears to be well now:


And last but not least, my Bessie delivered her first calf - a little heifer:


She was a bit excited about this new and strange creature and moved away from her as much as she moved toward her.  We gave her a watchful eye to make sure that she did eventually let her little girl nurse.  All's well with them this evening.  New momma has calmed down, become a bit more protective of her baby and they are well bonded now.

As for the humans at Moosters Meadows, we are tired but happy tonight!  Three down and eleven to go this spring.  Bessie's three half sisters should be next.  We hope they arrive with less hoopla!