The Little Farm That Could started with a single Jersey cow, Bella the Miracle Milk Cow.  She was so fabulous that we bought another Jersey, this time a "mid-size",  named "Maddie". Not only was she not friendly, she was downright uncooperative in all things, from capture to milking. We decided to scrap the idea of milking her for now, and acquired a drop calf for her to raise, so the milk wouldn't go to waste. (a drop calf is a calf that is taken away from it's mother right away, usually found at large Dairies.)

-Most drop-calves are dairy breed, although it is becoming more common for them to be half angus. 

-What does it mean when we say "Dairy" breed and "Beef" breed?  Just like dogs, and many other species of critters, cows also have many breeds within their species. a cow is a cow is a cow, is not always accurate. Cows are used all over the world, so each breed has evolved or been modified to do what it can best do it the region its being used. For example, cows that are raised in the Southern United States are developed to be lean and heat tolerant, with a high resistance to insects, whereas cows that are raised in the North and bred to be more Cold Hardy.  So when we say "Beef" breeds, we are talking about breeds of cattle that are most efficient at growing muscle, and "Dairy/Milk" breeds are more efficient at producing milk.  In other words, when you feed a beef cow more, it makes more beef, and when you feed a milk cow, it makes more milk.  Beef cows do still produce milk, usually just enough to raise a calf, and Milk cows are perfectly fine to eat as beef, however the meat:bone ratio is not as great, and so often they aren't used that way. However, it is common for retired milk cows to be used as hamburger. 

After sometime, we acquired a small herd of mid-mini jerseys. (These are often just a little bigger than is accepted in the mini jersey registry, but they still have most of the attributes of a mini.) One of them was a bull, so we planned to breed him to the other two girls that came with him, plus Bella and Maddie. That would be the beginning of our "downsize" herd plan, in which one can use standard and midsize jerseys and breed them to mini jerseys, with the goal that each generation gets smaller, thereby keeping the genetics  pure jersey, but reducing the size over time to keep fresh bloodlines in the mini pool. 

Maddie and Luna were unable to get pregnant, and Bella aborted her calf early. (All of these things were unrelated, and all checked into.) In the meantime, we had been checking out Lowline Angus cattle, so that we could raise beef, in addition to milk cows. We finally bought a small herd of 2 cows with steer calves at side, and acquired another Lowline mama from where we bought the jersey bull. We needed a bull, so we shipped a young bull from Colorado, and a Red Moderator cow (Which is a Lowline Angus that contains a percentage of standard size angus blood, in this case 50%) . We began to build the lowline herd. 

At this time, Dexters were becoming popular in out area, for their versatiliy. They were small, easy keepers, that were being used for milking and raising beef. They are excellent food converters, good mothers, long lived with good fertility, good mothers, hardy calves,  and overall decent dispositions, if not as friendly as jerseys. 

Dexter seemed like a good breed to try out, so we did.