Hey Olive!
My dad said that he does not want the Dexters for a few reason- 1. Too much money for a cow and calf, 2. We will need more milk then a Dexter cow can produce. But he like the Dexter dual proposes, so, after looking around on Craigslist for a Jersey/Dexter type, and found this one for a half price of the pure Dexter cow-
She is expecting her first calf in July, and was bred to dexter bull last fall. She is 20 month old Jersey Heifer, very friendly, and halter broke. But she is quite a drive by an hour and a half. But my dad seems to think that she would be great for us, and I hope that we would get her within a few weeks.
I just love her face.
ETA- the picture was taken from Craigslist.
Ohhhh, ohhhh. Now that brings back some wonderful memories. I was animal-crazy apparently from babyhood on, but my mother never wanted any pets except a cat or two. I loved the cats, but I wanted every other type of pet too. For many years I agitated for a dog. My mother always told me I was not resposible enough and that she would be the one who would take care of it. (Even with adult hindsight, remembering the kid I was, I strongly disagree with this... :/ ). But with collusion from my dad, and against my mother's wishes, I did eventually get a series of small animals (a few lizards, a rat, a guinea pig), all of which I took care of very diligently. What I wanted the most was a dog and a horse.
As a junior in high school, I got to be friends with a girl who was president of the local FFA chapter. She was quite the evangelist for FFA and for owning cows. Somehow she convinced me of this, and even more astonishingly, I convinced my mother that I needed to raise a dairy heifer as an FFA project. At the time, I planned to become a large animal veterinarian, and I think part of what convinced my mother was that this would "Look Good On My Record" when I eventually applied to vet school. (My mother was huge on things that would "Look Good On The Record"--which is why I got to spend a year as a foreign exchange student, but that's another story...)
So my friend Theresa, through her FFA connections, knew quite a few dairy farmers. I researched breeds and decided I wanted a Jersey. After school ended for the summer that year, we drove around to several farms and made a deal on a heifer, maybe four weeks old or less. We arrannged to pick it up in a few days. Now Theresa owned a Brown Swiss heifer, and she'd bought it when it was a few days old. She'd transported it on her lap inside of a burlap sack. She said we could do the same with mine--even though it was older, it was a smaller breed so it would still work. I remember feeling a little skeptical of this, but hey, she was the expert, and also the president of the FFA, so off we went.
Well, of course, the heifer didn't even fit inside the sack. And a few-week old calf is not nearly so passive as a couple-day old calf. Theresa was driving a little mini-pickup truck. So she drove, I sat in the passenger seat with this big calf on my lap, with my arms around it, and we drove home--about a 90 minute drive. Unforgettable. The calf kicked and struggled and naturally passed manure. I was covered in poo and bruises by the end of the ride. And I don't know when I've been more thrilled and happy. I couldn't have a dog, I couldn't have a horse, but by golly I owned a cow. And as Theresa had told me that cows were actually better pets than dogs, I was very content.
Oh, we didn't live on a farm or any kind of acreage of course. We lived in an ordinary house on a regular lot in a small town. But I had arranged with a family friend who had a small herd of beef cattle to board her at their place. So twice a day I would drive or ride my bike out several miles to their place and take care of her. I showed her at a couple fairs that summer, then the state fair in the fall. When school started I just had to get up extra early to get out there to do the morning chores.
She looked a lot like the cow Farmerboy is considering. She was beautiful and sweet and very affectionate. I named her Tarquin. My dad really enjoyed her too (he always was a mostly-silent sufferer under my mother's pet restrictions) and he would go out with me and we'd hang with her and work on making friends with the Herefords too.
When I left for college she was over a year old and bred (eneded up breeding her to a Hereford bull as she didn't take in several A.I. attempts with Jersey semen). So in the end my mother (well, mostly my father) did end up having to take care of her for a while. But we soon found a local dairy farm, very small scale, that bought her. And when I was home on break I did go visit her and got to milk her. She was a huge hit with the family because she was so sweet and friendly.
Anyway, that beautiful face of Daron's new cow (maybe!) brought it all back to me. Word of advice: don't try to transport her on your lap. Ha, ha. Although the heifer and I were very good friends by the end of that ride.
