I don't suppose the TNR readership is rife with people who have actually wrangled a Dexter, but I have, and I can see without fear of contradiction that the German Shepherd analogy is simply false.  They are certainly short compared to "full-size" cattle, but they still weigh in at 600 - 900 lbs when fully mature.   They are also no more immune to TB, brucellosis, or any of the other reasons we pasteurize milk than any other cow, so I wouldn't get too excited about the "can be drunk unpasteurized" part either.  They are pretty docile as cattle go, though.

For a family cow, I still think a Jersey is hard to beat.  Of course, back in the day, when I had one, the wife and I were both fattening up pretty steadily on a diet of too much butter, and chocolate pudding made with pure cream.  Fetching the cow to miler her twice a day never seemed to walk off as many calories as enjoying the fruits of the labor put on.  Alas, a lot of things in life are that way.

According to Moo's Law, by 2020 we will be able to fit 7 million cows on a single integrated circuit.

OK, sorry for the typos: Meant to write "I can say without fear ...." and of course "Fetching the cow to milk her ..."

I thought Moo's Law was:

"Cows per acre will double every two years."

So it's 0.5 Dexter per acre (approximately) today. In 2010 it will be a whole Dexter per acre. So by 2020 there will be 32 Dexters per acre. I got this from BEER*.

Dirk

*Bovine Experimental Equipment Researchers.

Touche!

"...that can be drunk unpasteurised..."

Sure, as long as you don't care about a little brucellosis or Mycobacterium bovis infection.

Whoops, I see you already touched on brucellosis and bovine TB, sdemuth.

Mighty big German Shepherds.

OK, so Dexter may not be as slick as advertised. But this is still great news. At least for me. You see, while the rest of America's postwar youth longed for the dreams of flying cars and videophones, I understood that flying cars will never happen for perfectly obvious logistical reasons, and no grownup actually wants a videophone (the technology has been viable since the mid-1960s, and yet consumers haven't been beating down phone company doors for videophones). No, my dreams of future techno-utopia involved biological miniaturization.

And not just shaving a few hundred pounds off a heifer. No, I'll know that The Future Is Now just as soon as true tabletop-sized bonsai animals come to market. A herd of terrier-sized bison in your back yard. Cattle no larger than your cat. Home terrariums with goats the size of goldfish. No more need to grab a .50 cal rifle and kill endangered species; now you can put a pint-sized cape buff, a foot-high giraffe, and a six-inch tusker in your study, live. No more passing off microscopic bits of krill or whatever as "sea monkeys;" now kids can raise bonsai whales in a 50-gallon tank on the back deck.

And not just mammals! One-eighth-scale ostriches will make for entertaining pets and healthy protein both. Who will keep koi when five-inch sharks can fit in the same tank?

So scoff if you will at details like Dexter's weight and the risks of brucellosis and bovine TB. I see this cow as a huge step toward a utopian future of true bonsai animals. (Mainly, I want the mini bison.)

"...that can be drunk unpasteurised..."

Sure, as long as you don't care about a little brucellosis or Mycobacterium bovis infection.

My understanding of these two problems stems from keeping too many cattle in close proximity to each other. I suspect if you've only got one mini-moo then the chances of your cow contracting them drops.

But if I had my druthers...I'd rather go with goats myself. They require less maintenance than even a mini cow  and they have far less outputs. For anyone who's spent time amongst livestock the waste is the biggest issue and least pleasurable to deal with. So I'll take goats over cows.

And Rhubarbs idea of miniature animals is intriguing from one perspective. The idea of having mini-bison would be great. And like any good meat...grass fed is best.

Mini bison would be great, but think of the fortune you could make selling chihuahua-sized elephants at the Republican convention!

I'm telling you, I've shared my dream of bonsai animals with people many times. Everyone always laughs derisively at first. Then I mention the idea of backyard mini-bison, and honest to goodness, that turns just about everyone around. There's just something about the idea of keeping a herd of miniature bison that seems to speak to the American soul.

Also, "chihuahua-sized elephants" is a pretty good description of the Bush-era Republican Party. You know, it's like the GOP, only smaller, sillier looking, incapable of performing any work, and with a high-pitched, shrieky voice.

"My understanding of these two problems stems from keeping too many cattle in close proximity to each other. I suspect if you've only got one mini-moo then the chances of your cow contracting them drops."

Unless your cow  comes pre-infected, or runs with your bison (or elk), mini or otherwise.  Western states have struggled to become bangs (brucellosis) free for years, because cows rub shoulders with other,  free ranging, carriers.

I saw some miniature cattle at my county fair last week.  There were miniature Brahmas as well as other breeds:  cute!

I think one value of miniature cows is the value of their manure to the vegetable garden. I read that a normal size cow needs 2 acres of pasture, but her manure fertilizes 4 acres.  Presumably these smaller cows would need about half the amount of pasture and also create half the manure, which is still a lot for a family vegetable garden.

sdemuth...

Are you spreading that vicious brucellosis rumour about bison? Where do you think the bison got it from? Brucellosis developed out of domesticated livestock being kept in close proximity to each other. It's transference to bison occurred when cattle were grazed with bison many moons ago. And there's never been a case of brucellosis transferred from bison to cattle. The bruhaha in the West stems more from the cattle ranchers wanting exclusivity to public range lands than any threat due to brucellosis. It's like their unbridled anger, fear and ignorance of wolves in Yellowstone.

But I'd still rather have a bison or goat before a cow especially with the amount of crap a cow creates, even half-sized is a lot. My ex and I had three horses and they created more compost material than we could use or shake a pitchfork at. We gave pickup loads away to family and friends.

If/when I get back to having a small spread, it'll have a few goats for cheese and milk, a few chickens for eggs and maybe a few of those mini-bison Rhubarbs is all about.

singlespeed,

I'm not up to speed on brucellosis in bison in recent memory.  More decades than I care to admit ago, though,  I did the data analysis for a project on brucellosis in the Custer State Park bison herd and the surrounding cattle lands in South Dakota.  It was fairly clear from the evidence that bison were a reservoir, and that movement of the pathogen could occur in both directions.

I certainly agree that the bison got it originally from cattle, but that's a completely different question than who can give it to who, once it's in the wild herds.

There are wild animal reservoirs for M bovis infection too.  Badgers have been implicated in the transmission of M bovis between cattle herd in the UK.  M bovis is been demonstrated in several other wild animal species there as well, though their roll in transmission is less clear.  Endemic M bovis infection has been proven in white-tailed deer in Michigan.  With the exception of Namibia, all wild lion populations in Africa have M. bovis.  (This is postulated to be the reason that Namibia's lions are larger.)

So, while a lone cow is relatively unlikely to acquire TB, it isn't impossible.  And, as sdemuth notes, cows can become infected early in life, suckling from their mothers.  

This infectious diseases doctor will stick to pasteurized milk.

sdemuth / aeromonas,

I agree that the pathogen path for brucellosis is multivaried. I recently read that the only wild bison herd in the US that still carries brucellosis is the Yellowstone herd. This is due to its legal status as a Federally protected herd and a public one that is under management by the NPS. I think the remaining herds in the US are under private or state control and the majority of those herds are actually mixed. Part wild bison and cattle. IIRC, the Yellowstone herd is the last true wild bison herd in the US and the management of brucellosis in that herd presents a different issue all together. If I had my way, I'd create a buffer zone around Yellowstone for the bison to wander into during bad grazing seasons. Couple that with rotational grazing times for the public grazing permits owned by ranchers and we could find a reasonable compromise to "managing" a wild bison population and still let legacy cattle remain without the culling that happens now.

And for the record...I'm not giving up pasteurized milk either, even if it's organic. But I would like to have some quality raw cheese sometime without paying an arm and a leg for it.

Reminds me of an ex.

Brad - I saw a doc or read somewhere (information paralysis) that American Bees are dying out, potentially due to the use of pesticides, and beekeepers are reduced to importing them from Australia.

Any plans to cover this?