Some people call them “patio cows” because they need so little room. Others refer to them as “a woman’s cow” because they’re smaller and have a gentle temperament.

The tiny cattle known as Dexters are a heritage breed that were becoming rare. But in recent years, the little cows have been making a comeback because of interest in sustainable farming and the desire to know where food was coming from.

When Mary Ann Stevenson and her husband Les Brunelle moved to her family’s farm near Bashaw a number of years ago, they became interested in picking up a Dexter as a sort of starter cow.

But once they visited a local breeder to check out her bovines, the little Dexters were so personable they quickly wound up taking 11 home. Five years later, they have about 90 head.

Stevenson said the animals are extremely hearty and smart. She has seen her cattle form a V-shape around their calves to fend off coyotes trying to pick off the weakest members of the herd. She said the Dexters are particularly good for small landowners because they don’t need as much space as other breeds.

A full-grown animal is generally 96 to 116 cm tall — or up to someone’s waist. Cows get to be around 340 kg and bulls are around 450 kg full-grown. Dexters can be traced back to the mid-1700s in Ireland and are descendents of the indigenous highland cattle.

Stevenson and her husband now raise Dexters in an area of Alberta where her family first settled in 1898. Her grandfather Hugh and grandmother Bertha had a log cabin on the property where they now live, with daughter Aubrey, two and a half years, and son Raife, three months. The farm is also populated with three donkeys, Lucy Llama and Dalai Llama, an Australian blue heeler named Divot, a black lab called Amy and a West Highland terrier that goes by the moniker of Sandy. Stevenson’s parents George and Betty lived there before they passed away and she took over the farm.

While Stevenson said there isn’t much demand for the little Dexters at an auction market, there is plenty of interest from those who want to buy privately to raise the animals for meat or as a dairy cow and others who want to buy meat directly from a farmer.

“I think there is a movement towards being sustainable,” she said. “We wanted to be sustainable. People too are becoming smarter consumers. They want to know where their meat is coming from.”

She invites those who buy meat from them to come out to their farm and have a look. In addition to families, a couple of Edmonton restaurants have expressed interest in getting a supply of beef.

Others are interested in Dexters because they have smaller cuts of meat, which more closely align with the Canada’s Food Guide. Although Stevenson has experienced lots of razzing from her older brothers because of that.

“My family teases me about the size of their steaks,” she said. “When we have a barbecue, they’ll joke ‘How many cows will that take?” She said one animal will give a family around 160 kg of meat — or enough for an apartment-size freezer.

But sometimes people can become so enamoured with Dexters that they don’t want the animal to be raised for meat. She said there was a woman who was interested in buying a cow at one point who was a vegetarian. She wanted the cow for milk, but didn’t think about a calf having to be born each year to continue the milk supply. Stevenson told her the calves could be raised for meat, but she didn’t want any part in it, pondering instead placing them in a friend’s field.

Stevenson said they hope to continue to grow their herd over the next few years, moving from a breeding stock of around 40 now to 60 or 70. She said it’s important for producers to look at growing their own markets and her family’s website at www.canadiandextercattle.com has been particularly helpful at doing that.

“The market is out there, you’ve just got to find it,” she said.

Contact Stacy O’Brien at sobrien@reddeeradvocate.com