The Perfect Small Acreage Heritage Breed for Beef and Milk!
This is a dual-purpose, slow-growing heritage breed meant for both milk and meat (and in some cases, tri-purpose, including draft oxen). Skinny animals that don't naturally carry any muscle volume or can't gain weight on grass alone have no place in our program. Likewise, an udder that breaks-down in the middle of the cow's lifespan has no place in our program either. Dexters are also renown for tender, gourmet beef, but we've found that even that is being lost in the hodge-podge of genetics available. That's why we genetically test for meat tenderness in our Dexter herd, but also for calving ease, low birth weight, consistent hang-weights, and cuts of grass-finished beef that make the best chefs turn their heads. Lastly, Dexters are a naturally short breed with stellar, gentle temperaments, making them the perfect choice for small acreage whether you want a milk cow to hand-milk or a steer to put in the freezer every year. Our herd is selected and tested to be free of the two major genetic diseases in Dexters: Chondrodysplasia and PHA. Most of our herd is A2/A2 for milk casein with females who don't offer to kick when you handle their udder. About bull leasing: We do not lease our bull, Elvis, nor do we board cows from other herds for breeding. We get a lot of requests for this, and while we're flattered (Elvis is VERY nice!), we do not offer this service. However, once we start seeing some of his calves hit the ground in Fall of 2026, we will consider collecting and selling his semen (also very requested already!)
Ballard Family Elvis, Our Herd Sire
Ballard Family Elvis, our herd sire out of Silvercreek Kent and Sheen's Sequin. Elvis brings muscle volume, short Dexter stature, and is free of PHA and Chondrodysplasia. He has a very sweet and gentle nature and was a breeze to train for the show ring. He also scored a 9 on his Igenity Tenderness test, preserving the tender meat genetics that gourmet Dexter beef is renown for! Homozygous polled, and A1/A2 for milk, Elvis brings strong udder genetics in his pedigree as well! While we're not big into showing, after we purchased Elvis, we felt that the best thing to do for him and his career as a herd sire was to get him into the show ring. He's just way too nice and brings so much to the table for him to not be shown off a little! He won 4th place in the Junior Bull division at the 2025 ADCA National Show in Pryor, Oklahoma! ADCA #: 057027
Our Foundation Females
In 2025, we set out to find beefier, bulkier females. We are primarily beef focused, but udder and milk were not an after-thought either in our consideration. Performance on grass alone was a huge consideration in our selection as well. We selected females from Sheen's and Timberview lines. All of our herd of females have tested a 6 or 7 on their tenderness score, are all A2/A2, and the majority are polled. All of them either came to us halter broke or we worked with them ourselves to halter train them. We've also retained two heifers from 2024 to allow to grow up and participate in our breeding program.
Hawk's Grove Rendezvous, aka Voo
Voo packs a lot of muscle in a slightly larger frame than her half-brother, Elvis. Voo also brings strong udder genetics with her in addition to the muscle volume, is A2/A2, and scored a 6 on her Igenity Tenderness/Leptin test. Breeding her to Elvis will yield 6's, 7's, or 9's on tenderness. Breeding a half-brother and half-sister to each other creates a COI of 15% (coefficient of inbreeding). Voo won 2nd place in the junior heifer division at the 2025 ADCA National Dexter show and joined us on the ride home from the show. She's a silly girl and loves to sling that tongue around! A recently born calf has tried to nurse on her and she hasn't even offered a kick at him. She has the potential to being a very good milk cow candidate or calf sharing candidate. ADCA #056662.
Sheen's Red Velvet
We brought Velvet home when a friend in Oklahoma's farm was flooding and kept flooding due to heavy spring rains for weeks on end. He let us have the pick of his herd. Velvet is one of those that we selected. She's one of the bigger females we have, but brings a ton of muscle volume and udder genetics to boot along with it. Though she's not the friendliest Dexter, she has started to accept shoulder scratches when I do herd checks throughout the week. She's A2/A2 and scored a 6 on her Igenity Tenderness/Leptin test. Breeding her to Elvis will yield 6's, 7's, and 9's on tenderness. Her dam, Sheen's Evelyn, won Best in Show Supreme Champion at the 2025 ADCA National Dexter show! Velvet brings excellent muscle volume and udder genetics along with her. ADCA #053490.
Circle H Sarah
Sarah is another cow that we brought home from the same friend in Oklahoma who was flooding. Sarah finished 2nd in the junior heifer division at the 2024 ADCA National Dexter Show. She is out of multiple show winners and repeat Grand Champion winners Timberview Thor and Timberview Nina. She is a thick, deep bodied girl, with lots of muscle volume and a pretty udder. She is A2/A2 and scored a 6 on her Igenity Tenderness/Leptin test. Breeding her to Elvis will yield 6's, 7's, and 9's. Sarah is super sweet and very friendly. Very much an in-your-pocket cow, but she leads well and has excellent halter manners! Though she was not on our radar as a potential milk cow, she hasn't even tried to kick when you mess with her udder. She just really likes to be with you. ADCA #054418.
Impromptu Acres Juniper, aka Mama June
Mama June was the first Dexter we brought home in March of 2023 and our oldest cow. She is a funny girl and never wanted anything to do with us for over a year until I started halter breaking the other cows. As soon as she saw the halters come out, she was first in line and wanted to be our friend ever since! She was a show cow in 2016 at the National Dexter Show, but didn't place. She is one of our best halter trained cows and it shows! She also gets incredibly excited when she sees the cattle trailer arrive and can't wait to greet whoever comes off the trailer! She is a very thick-boned, deep bodied girl. Though her udder started to break down very shortly after we brought her here, kicks when you touch her udder, and is A1/A2, what she lacks in udder and milk potential, she makes up for in muscle. Though not as well-built and muscled as some of the Sheen's and Timberview lines in our herd, we were impressed with her steer calf that we brought home and he has the record best hanging weight to date of any we've sent to the butcher. Incredibly, she scored a 7 on her Igenity Tenderness/Leptin test! She was our first Calpain 316 carrier in our herd. That particular gene when the animal carries the "C" allele helps bring up your tenderness scores in your herd. Breeding her to Elvis will yield 6's, 7's, 9's, and 10's! Her first calf born here was a heifer who scored a very rare 9 when bred to a previous bull who scored a 6. It was a 12% chance to roll that score, and she did it! Mama June has earned her place in our program for as long as her udder can hold up. ADCA #038750.
Duck N Acres Pearl
Pearl is our big, horned boss cow. She calf shares with her half-sister's calves on her own free will. She is intimidating with those massive horns, but she is very respectful of our space when we're out with the herd. She loves to be petted, but I think she understands that she's intimidating. She was an interesting one to halter break because once we started going on walks on the halter, she had her head on a swivel, looking around and sight-seeing... and swinging those big old horns everywhere she looked! Though she is intimidating, she is very gentle, and hasn't minded one bit having her udder handled. She is a very strong milk cow prospect. She also has one of the biggest, barrel-sized chests I've seen! If you want to add spring of rib to your herd, consider looking into her calves. Her first heifer calf, Minnie Pearl who we retained, has a chest almost as big as her mama's at under a year old! ADCA #053189.
Duck N Acres Fauna
Fauna is a shorter version of her half-sister, Pearl. Big horns, barrel-chested, and though not as friendly as Pearl, she is still very sweet. She doesn't welcome you approaching her too closely, but she will tolerate you fiddling with her udder and doesn't kick. She is also a good milk cow prospect. Like Pearl, she was easy to halter break and loads into a trailer easily as well. She adds the same spring of rib to her calves that Pearl does, but not as extreme. ADCA #053190.
Dos Lobos Minnie Pearl
Minnie was the first calf born on our farm with our farm name. Sired by our previous bull, Red River Concho, she takes a lot after her dam, Pearl. She got Pearl's massive barrel chest and sweet as pie personality. Concho lended his polled genetics and took away those intimidating horns that Pearl carries. She has the most muscle volume of any of the calves out of Concho and we liked how she was put together. Though she's not a show prospect, she is a quality beef producing candidate, a nice milk cow candidate, and a gentle soul. She was easy to start on the halter, just like her Sire and Dam. ADCA # pending.
Dos Lobos Midnight Magic
Magic arrived in the middle of the night and we found her the next morning all dried off and closely guarded by her dam, Juniper. Though Magic is not our friendliest girl, she is slowly warming up to us now that she's weaned. Her mama is such a careful mom, she would call Magic away anytime we were around, even though June lets us handle her readily. As such, we think this put the "stranger danger" thinking into Magic and is why it has taken her so long to warm up to people. She has not been readily accepting of the halter at all yet, but we're still working on her trust. (Her dam is the best halter broke cow we have and Concho, her sire, was a breeze to halter break). Born on the same day as Minnie Pearl, she hasn't grown at the same light-speed rate that Minnie did, but she has steadily grown into herself. She is going to be thick-boned like her dam with a decent amount of muscle volume. We expect her to be a kicker like June, so she's not expected to be a milk cow candidate. She did however, inherit her dam's rare Calpain 316 gene for beef tenderness, and rolled all the right combinations to score a 9 on her overall Igenity score! (It was literally a 12% chance to get that combination in all 3 genes, and she did it!) She is a welcome beef producer for our program! ADCA # pending.
