12/31/21

12/31/21🐄🔚

Blue Grey cows. I love our native breeds

Botanical illustrations taken from  ‘The Flowers of the Field’  by C. A. Johns.

Published 1911 by SPCK.

New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

archive.org

I love this plant 🍀

Miniature Zebu are the Best Cattle (for my homestead)

Zebu, Dexter, Lowline Angus, Jersey, Mini Herefords and Swiss are common small breeds in my state, and while of course there's variation per lineage, most of these breeds have a disadvantage to zebu.

TLDR; they were bred to be a full sized hamburger at half the height, that weight is going to cause issues on their smaller frame and legs. Not to mention the presence of the Dwarfism gene which TLDR; breeding issues and lethal genetics. If I'm going to commit to a life of becoming more self sufficient I want an animal who is healthy.

Jersey cattle are COMMON among homesteads and I wouldn't hate to have one in my herd, but they're small compared to a normal cow, but still cow sized.

There's Miniature Jerseys but they're basically non existent where I live, but besides the rarity they're a nice cow.

However. Miniature Zebu, there's quite a few different ranches here with a plethora of colors, sizes and even shapes. But most importantly all of them that I've seen have all had good shape and structure.

Both breeds, however, sport short, sleek coats and have tough, loose skin. They also have fully functional sweat glands.

Highly developed panniculus muscles make it easy for Zebus to twitch away flies. They’re heat-, disease- and insect-resistant, and they thrive on marginal pasture.

And rodeo-bull image notwithstanding, they are easy-going and remarkably intelligent

https://www.hobbyfarms.com/5-miniature-cattle-breeds-for-small-farms/

They are just a good cow, the IMZA has a ton of good information as well.

imza.name

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They're perfect for ME and my farm. They're smaller meaning I wouldn't have to figure out how to store or sell a huge amount of meat (a better portion of beef) they produce a little less milk cause I don't need a gallon twice a day per cow.

The very small size isn't due to dwarfism, they're more commonly hand tame and halter trained (and easy to do yourself once you own them) and even if you don't want milk or meat, you can sell them to other people as farm animals or pets to the right homes.

Jumy-M Trifolium pratense / 紫詰草