BT Farm is located latitude 36º20’N, longitude 96º40’W, 2 miles outside the city of Jennings in Pawnee County in the state of Oklahoma, just in the northeastern most corner of the southwest drylands region of what used to be the Wild, Wild West in the USA. Cowboys, Indians, and buffaloes used to be the order of the day, but now oil, wheat, and cattle dominant the area. Prairie grass, cedar trees, blackjack oak, sandstone rock, and wild critters of all kinds abound on our 30 acre small farm, inhabited by Karen, John, Caesar (our 90 lb Doberman Pincher dog), our nine registered purebred Dexters (females - Toby, Sulu, Heatwave, Mousi, Fluff, Beauty, Mudpie, and Sarah), and bull calf Snow, with Bell the rescued Brangus cross and Miss BiBi the llama.
Karen first found out about Dexter Cattle on the internet, looking for other livestock to graze our pastures after we got rid of our horses, two 1200 lb beasts who were getting difficult to handle and always needing their hooves trimmed by nonexistent farriers. However, we did not want the mundane, slow, dull-witted, severely inbred animals (they call them cattle) that dominated other farms in our region.
After seeing Dexters for the first time in the early spring of 2001, we were impressively taken by not only their size and other physical attributes, but by the wonderful sense of life and intelligence that we could see in their beautiful expressive eyes. They appeared so much more mentally alert, aware, and knowing than our horses did, and they seemed to rival the alive personality of Caesar. They are more than livestock, like companions approaching friends.
The rare breed livestock status of Dexters also fit our personalities. We were always interested in protecting free wildlife, but ones like the elephants, for example, were so far away, unobtainable, and unexperienceable. In fact, we have never even touched an elephant, let alone brushed or hugged one. One of our missions is to help conserve and promote the rare Dexter Cattle breed, and we are members of multiple worldwide Rare Breed Societies.
We are interested in learning all we can about Dexters and sharing what we can locally, nationally, and globally, by being members not only of the ALBC and ADCA here in America, but of many other Dexter Cattle associations and Rare Breed societies around the world. Trying to become breeders who work to conserve and promote this little rare livestock breed is our purpose here at the farm. BT Farm’s mission statement is "Promotion of the Dexter Cattle Rare Breed and Preservation of Its Genetic Diversity". Out-breeding to help increase the robustness of the genetic diversity in Dexters is very important to us. We plan to use AI and ET (even through importation if necessary), obtain our first bull soon, and maybe lease much more land in future to increase our herd.
Some have asked about the BT Farm name that we use and where it came from. Our daughter Stacey coined the name when we were first getting started with Dexters. She said that we were trying our best in matters new to us. Thus the name, Best Try Farm, will hopefully keep us on our toes when dealing with these wonderful little Dexters.
Karen and John Kohut III
BT Farm
Jennings, Oklahoma
USA
