Is it possible to raise a Dexter or two on 2 acres?

I just got a property with ~3 acres 2 are pasture. I want to raise a cow for milk and use the calf for beef just for myself. I think Dexter's would be ok on the small of a pasture, but every one I see that say small farm have a lot more acreage than I do. Is it possible to do what I want on such a small pasture? Any suggestions would be awesome thank you.

The loose rule of thumb that I have heard is 1-2 acres per Dexter. This of course is influenced by what your pastures look like and what they contain for forage.

Here is a link to another thread discussion on Dexters - https://permies.com/t/130822/Dexter-Cattle-discussion

Welcome to Permies!

Thank you! I'm not sure the quality of the pasture yet but I am willing to work on it.I'll check out that post you suggested.

I'd say "Yes" but that would also include supplementary feeding, but if there's room and sufficient fencing, rotational grazing could be the go.

It's practically impossible to give a quality answer to that question without knowing where you live.  Climate, rainfall, and soil type have a lot to do with that if you want to keep them on pasture.  If you are going to dry lot them and haul feed in it will work  practically anywhere.  Short answer-maybe!

You can raise them in a suburban back yard if you are happy to buy in everything they eat. Remember that eighty two percent of American dairy herds spend their lives indoors.

You can feed a lot of animals on a small area using sprouted grain under lights- I'm sure it would have been covered on this site somewhere pereviously. There are even commercially available setups-   https://gnhydroponic.en.made-in-china.com/product/dtargCyhHTVG/China-G-N-Hydroponic-Fodder-Full-System-Seeds-Sprouting-Fodder-Grass-Barley-Growing-System-Multi-Function-Hydroponic-Tray.html

I think you would end up with barren earth, essentially a mud pit.

Hello Kimberly!

When you do rotational grazing and all organic inputs, your soil will get thicker and your land richer and more productive every year.  Even land that is very poor to begin with will become rich and magnificent with animals grazing it.  

The main thing is to graze and manure the land and then let it rest until the new tips are well above the grazed tips.  

If you can water the ground, it will really speed up the process.  


Another great way to get more surface area out of your acres and more feed growing is to create hugel beds and ponds.  

This is a huge topic so I would probably start with this movie to give you full instructions and get your imagination going:
this is just the trailer


you can buy the movie here:
https://permies.com/wiki/52912/World-Domination-Gardening-movie-set


Hugelkultur is a self watering way of creating extremely deep, nutrient rich growing spaces.  
A hugel bed can be oriented for wind protection, to harvest drifting snow, sheltered sunny areas and cool shade.

As you will see in the movie, adding a pond is easy and has significant upsides.
You can often grow more calories per acre on water than you can on land and a pond produces organic matter (pond muck), an excellent source of nutrient to use in other areas of your farm.  

Bryan Elliott wrote:It's practically impossible to give a quality answer to that question without knowing where you live.  Climate, rainfall, and soil type have a lot to do with that if you want to keep them on pasture.  If you are going to dry lot them and haul feed in it will work  practically anywhere.  Short answer-maybe!

I am just now buying the property, So right now I am not sure about the pasture yet. i plan on getting the soil tested. I watched a few vids where they use chickens and pigs to rejuvenate a pasture. I think I might try that and then reseed the cleared areas they leave with a bunch of pasture grasses and other forage stuff. I watched a video that had a Dexter cow on an acre with 8 pastures and they move the cow to a new pasture every few days and then after 16 - 20 days She is back on the first pasture. they also said to put chickens in the first pasture after the cow moves to the 3rd pasture. they said a pasture of 30 x 90 would be good for a Dexter if it has good forage grasses. my only thought though is, is 16 - 20 days enough "rest" for the pasture. it feels to me like that is not enough rest time.

The land is located on the west side of the cascade mountains (PNW). so decent rainfall. the surrounding area looks like it has a large cow pastures.

My response to the question is Yes, have fun and enjoy your efforts and failures.

Old time rule of thumb was 1 cow or 4 goats or 8 sheep per acre, never did chickens on pasture, that's nothing but a free buffet for predators. So the cow idea could work, as is anything really, the variable is your labor to make it happen. You'll need to come up with a lousy weather energy source, haylage, grain, whatever when pasturage isn't enough.  What made you focus on dexter? My 2cs if its milk your after go with a jersey, better  and more milk, if she drops a bull calf it's headed for the freezer anyway, if a heifer calf you could sell her, upgrade if you've done your breeding home work, or keep for more milk.  Renovating a pasture with pigs is just an invitation to need tractor harrow, plows to remediate what they've left in their wake.

An Indian saying goes "A hoof print in the dirt is a blessing to the soil."  Within reason, I believe all of the amending we do to enrich our soil is solely because of the absence of ruminants grazing on it.

Scott Leonard wrote:Old time rule of thumb was 1 cow or 4 goats or 8 sheep per acre, never did chickens on pasture, that's nothing but a free buffet for predators. So the cow idea could work, as is anything really, the variable is your labor to make it happen. You'll need to come up with a lousy weather energy source, haylage, grain, whatever when pasturage isn't enough.  What made you focus on dexter? My 2cs if its milk your after go with a jersey, better  and more milk, if she drops a bull calf it's headed for the freezer anyway, if a heifer calf you could sell her, upgrade if you've done your breeding home work, or keep for more milk.  Renovating a pasture with pigs is just an invitation to need tractor harrow, plows to remediate what they've left in their wake.

Dexter's as from my research they are a good well rounded cow. It is just me so I do not need a lot of milk but want some to drink, make cheese and yogurt (just for me) then the calf raise for the freezer. also, from what I have read as they are a smaller cow it fits my smaller acreage. well I am hoping so. hence, the question about having them on 1 - 2 acre pasture. Thank you for your input

Hi Kim. I'm a bit late to this party, but I can add a few things here. You are west of the Cascades.....so I'm guessing east of the coast range and you are in the valley? (I've been there). Based on that (some assumption on my part) you are likely to have some forage growth year round, depending on the grass species.

Here are 4 guiding principles when grazing grasses. I'm guessing you have sod forming grasses where you are.

1. Never let seed heads form on your grasses. Doing so will slow the growth of the grasses and lower total forage production, hence less to eat.
2. Never Graze the grasses closer than 3 inches. The grass needs that leaf area for photosynthesis and to keep growing.
3. Never graze an area for longer than 7 days. You want the grass to regrow after being eaten. Let the grass regrow. Don't let the animals keep eating the new grass as soon as it emerges. This will weaken the grass if you do. Gras can be re-eaten after being g
       grazed 3 days later. Grazing an area for longer than a week will result in too much grazing of brand new growth and becomes detrimental to the plant.
4. Never return to a pasture sooner than 30 days post grazing. Once animals are removed from the pasture, keep the animals off the pasture for 30 days (minimum 28 days [4 weeks is a nice, round number]. Returning sooner consumes regrowth too soon and
            decreases plant vigor. You also don't want to rest too long as at some point, grass nutritional value will start dropping. I don't have a set time for this, but I'd say don't stay way longer than 45 days.

You asked how many acres for a animal. It's highly variable. Depends on animal size. Depends on forage production. Depends on feed efficiency (depending on the grazing system, this could be somewhere between 30 at the low end and 85/90 at the high end. That will largely be determined by how frequently you move your animals to new pasture. More rotations = more efficiency. The frequency of rotation I'm refering to here is from moving the animals once every 6 weeks to moving the animals 2x a day. Moving the animals is very, very easy though if you know what you are doing. It's not rocket science.  As a rule of thumb, its going to take 2.5 acres to feed a cow on a year round basis. That said, I've seen ranges from just over an acre up to about 4.5 acres as required. When you start talking talking about rangeland, you might need 60-80 acres for a cow for a year. You don't have rangeland where you are.

From what I've read here, I suspect you'd probably be good. Rotation will be a huge benefit in any case, and I think that you are right in looking at smaller animals for a smaller acreage. If you wanted, you could call your county extension office and ask what the typical carrying capacity of pastures in your area is. That number is usually given in animal units per acre, where "animal unit" is a 1,000lb cow. You can do the math up or down based on the projected weights of whatever animals you're looking at. Wikipedia indicates that Dexter cows are usually around 700lbs, so that would be 0.7AU.

The biggest thing is to be observant, both of the animals, and your pasture. I'm not sure who started it (Allen Nation, I think), but there are those in the regenerative livestock world who consider themselves grass farmers before anything else. Keep the grass growing and happy, and the rest will fall into place. I've been reading The Stockman Grass Farmer (a monthly magazine on the subject) for a couple years now, and there's a lot of good stuff there about pasture and animal management. They also have a free podcast, for those so inclined.

The grazing and rest periods are going to vary through the year, as weather, seasons, and animals change, so you have to develop an eye for when it's time to move, and when it's time to come back. It's both an art and a science. There's also an art form to multi-species grazing - working with cows and sheep and chickens and turkeys and pigs and ducks (or some permutation thereof), which can be beneficial, but you probably want to ease into that one at a time, so you make sure you're meeting the needs of each species as you go. I'm not sure that you could stack all that deeply on a small holding - it probably doesn't scale as if you're accounting for each animal individually, but you're still have to account some carrying capacity for each new animal, and if you overstock you'll end up wreaking ecological havoc and end up with a barren moonscape that will take a lot of time and rest to recover from.

As you practice and learn, you'll figure out just what your land is capable of, and with good management it will get better as the years go by.