A Dexter cow lounges in the field of the Dexter Cattle Company.
A Prince Edward Island beef farm is looking to promote a unique cattle breed. The Dexter Cattle Company was founded by Mike Lafortune and his wife Evelyn in 2014 with the intention of utilizing the Irish Dexter breed of cow. Though often overlooked, Lafortune says the breed is extremely easy to work with.
Dexter Cattle Company founders Mike Lafortune and wife Evelyn and their dog Fred.
“I had experimented with Texas Longhorns, but that was not a good experience for me,” says Lafortune. “They’re a little harder to handle. Since I had small children, I wanted an animal that would be fairly docile and easy to work with, but also very productive.”
Lafortune began researching other breeds and soon came across Irish Dexters, which seemed a perfect fit. Dexter cows measure from 36 to 44 inches tall and weigh up to 850 lbs, with bulls usually standing a few inches taller and up to 1100 lbs. The breed’s docile, approachable and friendly demeanours were another great advantage. However, upon working with them, Lafortune found other benefits.
“They don’t need any human intervention at all,” he says. “They have an amazing, robust immune system. We don’t actually give them antibiotics or shots, they just thrive without too much human intervention. They do very, very well. And they’re great converters of forage. We’re an organic, grass-fed operation. The cow is absolutely ideal for that. And it’s a dual purpose animal — not only do they provide you with meat but they provide really, really nice milk. And they’re easy to train.”
Lafortune’s grandsons Griffin and Beckett Power getting to know a couple of Dexter calves.
Evelyn had an existing farm with horses on PEI and that seemed a perfect location to establish their new venture.
“The terrain here is amazing — small acreage, rolling hills, some trees, great air, amazing grass,” says Lafortune. “The cow is ideally suited for small acreage, so we said, let’s consider introducing the breed to PEI and let people see them. We decided to create a small ranch that would be something of a demonstration of how these cattle can function on small acreage. We started with five and now we’re over 80.”
One of the primary objectives of the farm was to demonstrate an alternative to what Lafortune calls ‘the industrial model.’ He wanted to show that with the right breed and the right approach, cattle could be raised without the use of hormone implants, antibiotics or synthetic fertilizers.
“My wife is in the health industry, we wanted to demonstrate that you could produce really good food that’s extremely nutritious and it isn’t rocket science,” says Lafortune. “Just about anybody could do it.”
A Dexter bull named Irwin from Dexter Cattle Company. Founder Mike Lafortune says the breed are docile and friendly and require very little intervention to thrive.
Lafortune says understanding the needs of the animal is the key to making the operation work. Keeping the animal’s stress as low as possible, for example, is important. A cow’s stress levels are not helped by confining them in high density conditions.
With all of the benefits of the breed, why are Dexters not more popular? Lafortune speculates there are a variety of reasons. Primarily, he says there has long been a ‘bigger is better’ mentality in the cattle industry, which led to efforts trying to make cattle larger and larger. As such, much of the standard equipment used in cattle ranching is geared towards larger animals. Lafortune says Dexter ranchers should also be prepared to argue that size is not everything.
“When you’re surrounded by ranchers who have the big, conventional cattle, and they see one of yours, they tend to make fun of you,” says Lafortune. “’Where’s the rest of your cow?’ and that sort of stuff. So, you have to be able to accept a little bit of ribbing. But if people started going back a little bit and say, ‘We need to step away from the industrial model, what are the breeds that will work?’ Then the Dexter starts rising to the top.”
A new born Dexter calf rests near other members of the herd.
Lafortune says that it was important to make efforts to reduce antibiotics in the food chain and to provide the community with high quality food.
“We can go back a little bit and use proper techniques of raising these animals that are good for the animal, good for the environment and good for business with an easy model to follow that could be replicated by anyone,” says Lafortune. “I really think that if people were to look at this with fresh eyes, they would see that this is an absolutely wonderful little animal to have around.
- Matt Jones