Don't have a back 40? Try mini-cattle

Miniature cattle are primarily sold for use as pets, for small-scale milk production, breeding, showing, organic beef production or for the farm-grown market, which produces cattle on smaller farms, Gradwohl said. Sixty to 70 percent are sold as pets, he estimated.

Full miniature cattle are defined as those below 42 inches at the hip when fully grown, while mid-size miniatures are up to 48 inches, said Gradwohl, who registers 26 miniature breeds.

Another factor driving the popularity is that most people don’t have enough land for full-sized cattle, which need five acres for two cattle, compared to an acre for a pair of miniature cattle.

“The years where we had people with three, four, five hundred acres are gone,” Gradwohl said. “If you have five acres with miniature cattle the concentration is about two per acre, so you can raise 10 miniature cattle on five acres quite well.”

Those 10 mini cows will provide about 6,000 pounds on the hoof, compared to as much as 3,000 pounds that could come from two full-size cattle, Gradwohl said.

“That’s true because of the feed efficiency of the animals, and their hooves are smaller so they won’t tear up the pasture,” which helps maintain the grass they feed on, he said.

Cattle that can be raised easier on grass only is also an increasingly desirable trait because grass-fed beef is said to contain higher levels of heart-healthy Omega 3 fatty acids, breeders say.

However, finding growers who raise miniature cattle for beef is still fairly difficult because of the rarity of the breeds and the fact most are raised as pets.

In Felton, Del., Charles Warren has a half dozen Zebus — miniature humpbacked Brahmans — which he says are the only true miniatures because they are naturally small and have not been bred down to their size.

Warren, who works for Kraft Foods in Dover, Del., keeps the five cows and one bull as a hobby, along with a variety of other small animals on his 25-acre property.

“They’re like a pet more than anything. I like them because they’re neat looking, they’re oddities,” Warren said.

Warren said he hasn’t eaten any or sold any for slaughter, with most going to breeders and some to a rodeo outfit.

“My wife won’t eat anything we grow on the farm. She says if it doesn’t come on a Styrofoam tray we don’t eat it.”

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