Glenn Land Farm Dexters are raised on irrigated pasture in the northern end of the Sacramento valley. We use pasture rotation and intensive grazing to improve the pasture quality and cut down on parasite loads. The cattle are usually moved to fresh pasture daily. Our pastures are mostly ryegrass, Dallas grass, fescue, white clover, tonic plantain and puna chicory. We use high tensile wire electric fence for the perimeter and poly tape and plastic posts for cross fencing pastures.

Heifers are bred at 13 to 15 months of age to calve at about two years. Dexters reach puberty at a very early age and breed back very soon after calving. These traits make good management important in weaning heifer calves early and monitoring the condition of the cattle carefully. Dexter cows produce lots of milk and calve easily. Dexter bulls are being used in beef and dairy herds as first calf heifer bulls to insure easy calving. Dexter cows are also used in other parts of the world to raise extra calves. We also get many inquiries on Dexter cows as milk cows. They are an excellent family milk cow as they produce 1.5 to 2 gallons of rich milk daily.

Our livestock are pastured on the irrigated grass and clover pastures from March to November. They are then fed grass hay and almond hulls through the winter. All heifers are brucellosis vaccinated and cows and calves are vaccinated with a seven way clostridial vaccine. Cows and calves are treated with a pour on ivomec wormer for internal and external parasites. Some sale animals are dehorned at weaning and all heifers are broke to halter and lead. Our sheep are given two clostridial 8-way vaccinations and selenium supplement. They are dewormed as necessary.

We have built up a clientele of buyers for our steer carcasses and have run groups of steers through the Chico State fed steer and heifer evaluation and collected average daily gain, feed conversion and carcass data. Dexters have an excellent carcass for family home consumption. The meat is very tender, fine grained and the meat produced per carcass is the right amount for most families. Our calves are fed out on grass and slaughtered at 14 to 16 months of age which results in a very tender but low fat product.