# Dutch belted cattle?



## HillRunner (Jun 28, 2010)

How are they? There dairy right? Are they rare? How big do they get? Does anyone own them on this forum? if so how did you like them?


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Fine. Right. No. Bigger than a Jersey, smaller than a holstein. Don't own any.


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## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

Dutch Belted are considered "critically rare" in the US by the ALBC:

http://albc-usa.org/cpl/dutchbelt.html

Other than knowing they are on the ALBC list, I know nothing.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

I was thinking of Belted Galloway. Any belted cattle I see aren't selling above the rst of the common cattle at auction.


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

Dutch Belted are considered "critically rare" in the US by the ALBC


but that means CATTLE BUYERS have no knowledge of how they do in feed lots

will have to sell to the public to get any kind of a good price

they are dairy but have not been used as dairy or BRED UP to produce more milk about as much as a beef cow now

The man my dad worked for had a 200 herd of them ,,,,and he traded 100 head of angus for them...thats what the first owner thought of them...never made money on them


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## HillRunner (Jun 28, 2010)

Wasn't looking to make money looking for a milker to add with with my Jersey.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Ah yes the Panda Cattle. I see a few around WI. Not that many but a few places have them.


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## allenslabs (Feb 6, 2005)

Are they related to belted Galloways?


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## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

I don't believe belted Galloways are related to the Dutch Belted. Belted Galloways are still Galloways, just with the belt, all beef.

A farmer a couple miles from me used to raise belted Galloways and got rid of all the ones with the belts, kept the solid ones, because he always got docked at the sale barn on the belties. With most rare breeds you can't expect to get market price at the sale barn.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

We had one, a steer. Came from a dairy farm that was changing from Holstein to the Dutch Belted as their producers. The DB are not common, but are very desired for their lovely milk. Seems milk has very small fat globules that are supposed to be more easily digested. A local 2nd dairy with all Dutch Belted cattle, is contracted to sell all their milk production to the big cheese factory in SE Michigan for artisanal cheese production. Gets hauled more than 3 hours away, so the cheese folks really want "that" kind of milk to work with.

I found it interesting that the DB have black hooves, but once I started looking, I have only seen white hooves on the Holsteins. I have always preferred black hooves on horses, though there is supposed to be no difference in toughness. White seems to always have an issue before the black hoof will, and white skin is more reactive too.

Our steer was a very nice animal, quick to learn, easy to handle, friendly. We sold him at Fair, 500#. DD talked to the buyer the next summer and found they had processed him at 1400#, in spring. He would have been about 16 months old then. 

I would say that is great gain on a dairy calf, in a relatively short time. He was on mostly grass for us, gained very well. Actually had him on a diet before Fair, since the 500# mark is all they can weigh to sell in the market auction. If over, kids can't sell at Fair. Judge said he would have liked more weight on him, had good bone structure, enough bone to carry a lot more weight. However WE had to work with that weight limit, so he was rather light looking for his frame at Fair. Had good muscle coverage, lots of exercise, so he was SOLID, just not as heavy as he could have been.

There were 2 other DB calves showing at Fair, they also were nice looking, nice acting. They were steers from that 2nd Dairy that sells to the cheese factory. Quality looking, refined and with ours, the three DB calves were almost exact matches in type. We noticed the DB calves all had good hair coats, fine but not excessively thick, very shiny, didn't need the total body clip like Holsteins to look nice. None of them had any bleaching from the sun, unlike the Holsteins again.

I REALLY liked our steer, would certainly give a DB cow a try if we were doing home milking. I found the small fat globule information to be unique, and would be a benefit to having this breed. 

The cows we saw were a smaller animal than the Holstein or Brown Swiss, not tiny though. Very dairy looking, refined and slick coated. Didn't act silly or spooky, seemed easy to handle. I expect the DB share some genetics with the Belted Galloways, but the body type is quite different in each breed.

Not sure if other folks have experienced this, but our DB steer got sore backed with the pour-on wormer on the white skin area. No reaction to wormer on his black skin. So we didn't use the wormer on his white skin again. We also avoided the white skin on our Holstein and Hereford calves when we wormed them this year, "just in case".

Here is the Dutch Belted Breed site. There are tabs for various information under the name, but hard to read blue on black. Maybe I have my screen too bright! I would buy another one!!

http://www.dutchbelted.com/


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## loislanefl (Nov 7, 2011)

The family cow message board has some people with DBs who can probably answer your questions. The ones who have them seem to like them.


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

They are not rare, but are uncommon, especially in some areas. ALBC doesn't know what the heck they are talking about regarding the true population status of many of the breeds on their "conservation priority" lists. Ducth Belts at one time were similar in size and production to Holsteins, but today both have dropped a little due to lack of selection, related to their low numbers. Temperaments are similar to Holsteins too, in my experience. They originated in the same area and from some of the same stock. People confuse them with Belted Galloways all the time. I don't know why. It's like confusing a Dalmation with a Leopard Appy as far as I'm concerned.


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