RURAL DOUGLAS, Neb. (AP) - In this super-sized world, Dexter cattle are an oddity.

The standard for 3-year-old Dexter cow is 42 inches and 800 pounds, and for bulls, 44 inches and 1,000 pounds, and they can be used for both milk and meat.

An average commercial cow at age 3 weighs between 1,150 and 1,200 and is 52 to 56 inches tall. Bulls average 1,800 pounds.

The Dexter breed was just the right choice for Jeff and Melinda Chambers and their 17-year-old daughter, Sarah, who live on a 70-acre farm two miles north of Douglas in southwestern Otoe County.

The small size of the cow was more appropriate for their acreage and they wanted to be able to use the animals for food. Although after they started buying and breeding their Dexters, they decided against slaughtering them for their meat, opting instead to build their herd.

They bought their farm in 1993, and are trying to live off their land as much as possible, with the help of a garden, chickens for eggs, bees for honey, and in 2000, the addition of Dexter cattle.

Jeff is a research manager at the Center on Children, Family and the Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Melinda is a registered nurse at a Lincoln hospital. Sarah is a senior at Palmyra High School.

Jeff said he was specifically looking for a dual-purpose breed, when he found the Dexter cattle, which also have the advantage of being small.

The Chambers' Silver Maple Dexters operation started off with three Dexters, and is now at 15. Eventually the couple hopes to build to a herd of 25.

They regularly gets calls from other farms wanting to buy their animals, but they've sold off very few.

Jeff said the Dexters originated in Ireland sometime in the 17th century, where the cattle lived close to the homes.

Through selective breeding, they became primarily dairy cattle, but with a beefy frame. They became prominent in the 1860s, and are especially popular in England, where the gentry used Dexters as attractive lawn mowers, Chambers said.

Dexters came to the United States in the early 20th century.

According to the American Dexter Cattle Association there are only 6,000 Dexters in the United States, and about 15,000 worldwide.

Another advantage for acreage owners is that Dexters are gentle. So gentle that Jeff only dehorns the bulls, and not the females.

"They seem more intelligent than average," Chambers said.