Cover story: Dexter cattle short on stature, big on interest

<i>Originally published in the September 4, 2009, print edition.</i>

By Richard Siemers

Don’t call them miniatures. And don’t associate them with dwarfs. Dexter cattle want to be known for what they are — the smallest full-sized breed in the world.

It’s not a matter of pride. It’s just a matter of fact.

Chuck Daggett raises Dexter cattle on his acreage between Watertown and St. Bonifacius. Last year he took some to the Carver County Fair.

“A lot of people stopped and asked, ‘Are they babies?’ ‘Are they going to get bigger?’ ‘How old are they?’ Their size is what really draws most people,” Daggett said.

Daggett is a retired teacher, who started in high school math and biology and ended his career teaching computer classes at Minneapolis Technical College and at Crown College in St. Bonifacius. He is the registrar and webmaster for the American Dexter Cattle Association.

Dexters work well on the Daggetts’ 18 acres. When his children were home, he raised Charolais and Polled Herefords, and they milked a Guernsey cow. He first learned of Dexters back in the 1990s.

With the children grown, there is no more milking. He raises Dexters for breeding stock, and he intentionally keeps his number small. Right now his herd totals 16.

“It’s basically a hobby,” he said, “but actually, in the last few years, the demand has been pretty great and I’ve made a profit on selling even the small animals.” And he does it without advertising. “I took a couple to the fair and people took my information and called me, and I couldn’t meet the demand last year.”

Daggett’s small herd is typical. He said the average across the country is probably six to 10 animals, though there are some people who have close to a hundred in their herd.

“We’re not very commercial,” Daggett said. That is right in line with the whole history of the breed.

Breed background

While the origin of the Dexter is obscure, the breed developed in Ireland. Daggett said the poor people of Ireland, who didn’t have much land, needed a hardy little breed that was tame, because they didn’t have barns.

“They would tie them to a fencepost and milk them,” he said. “Consequently they only had one or two, and they got meat and milk from them. They even used them as oxen to pull little carts.”

Dexters were introduced to America in the early 1900s. Some of the first ones imported went to railroad magnate James J. Hill for his North Oaks herd in Minnesota. While it was the wealthy who brought the breed to America, the characteristics bred into them by poor Irish farmers — hardiness, small size, feed efficiency, docility — still benefit the small operation.

“They are hardy,” said Daggett, whose cattle prefer to stay outside during the winter.

They work well on a small acreage, providing a family with milk and meat. According to the Oklahoma State University website, a milking Dexter “can produce more milk for its weight than any other breed. The daily yield averages 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 gallons with a butterfat content of 4 to 5 percent. Yields of cream up to one quart per gallon are possible.”

They also give a reasonable amount of meat. “If you had to buy half a Charolais, that’s a lot of meat,” Daggett said. “With half of a Dexter you get the same number of steaks and everything, but they’re just smaller. And people are eating less meat so a small steak is just fine.”

Add to that the fact that they thrive on grass — Daggett feeds no grain to his herd — and you have the healthy, grass-fed beef that many consumers are interested in these days.

Easy going, easy calving

So who actually raises Dexter cattle? Daggett said that a large number of Dexter raisers are retired people. For many of them it may be a novelty, though Daggett turns a profit on his small herd. Many ADCA members are women. A high percentage of those who attend the annual meeting are women who raise them, and about 50 percent of the ADCA board is women.

The ADCA is spending money on youth programs and scholarships to attract that generation. They are a good breed for young people to show, because they are easy to handle due to their size and temperament.

Size and temperament also appeal to adults. Tom Leustek of Willow River grew up on a farm, and when he retired from teaching he wanted to raise cattle. His wife, Jean, was not a farm girl, but was not intimidated by the small Dexters that are so docile.

“They come up to me and want their backs scratched,” Leustek said.

Leustek sells beef and calves, and uses the manure for his garden. He describes them as “easy keepers” and feed efficient. “They will browse on most anything,” he said, at times preferring pigweed in an old corral to higher-quality grass. (Their reputation for eating indiscriminately no doubt led to the tale he has heard about James Hill first importing them to clean up weeds along his railroad tracks.)

Leustek is also impressed by their easy calving. “I can’t believe how quickly they calve,” he said. “I’ve watched them and they are done in 15 minutes.”

Leustek’s current herd numbers 13. He has raised them for seven years. Farther north, near Mountain Iron, the Ramponi family has had Dexters for five years.

Hardy breed

Andrea Ramponi said that she and her father, Roger, have 24 animals. They, too, like the “calm temperament, the size, the smaller land and feed requirements, and the ease of calving.” To that she adds their hardiness.

“We raise Dexter cattle because they are very adapted to the cold in northern Minnesota,” she said. “They are extremely hardy. We had a cow disappear for six months, and when we finally found her, she was still as fat and happy as the day she disappeared.”

The Ramponis raise Dexters for beef and breeding stock, but Andrea said they “have milked with marked success even in animals that have had no prior milking or training to milk.”

“There’s a lot of new people going into Dexters in Minnesota,” Daggett said. More than 20 are listed at the ADCA website. “It’s an unusual niche.”

The average herd size of six to 10 animals is low because many people have only one or two cows, for milk and meat. While this may not sound like serious animal agriculture, the folks who raise Dexters are serious about their breed.

“We really value long pedigrees,” Daggett said. “Nothing goes in that isn’t a Dexter. In fact, to register a Dexter, you have to have five generations back for a pure Dexter.”

There was a time when the Dexter breed was listed as rare, but with their gain in popularity, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy now gives them the status of “recovering.”

“I think they’re still a novelty and a niche breed,” Daggett said. The niche they particularly fill is one for people who want grass-fed beef and good milk, but don’t have much space.

All of that said, it is still their size that first attracts people. Most full-grown bulls are around 1,000 pounds, Daggett said. They are indeed the world’s smallest true breed of cattle, not a miniature developed from a larger breed.

“It’s a great animal for a small area, if you want meat and milk,” Daggett said.

Daggett can be contacted at adca@dextercattle.org or (952) 215-2206. The American Dexter Cattle Association website is www.dextercattle.org. The Oklahoma State University information on breeds is at www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds.

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