Walking through ankle-high grass, the 3-foot-tall animal tugged and threw its brown head back as handler Wendy Peterson, jostled some by its weight, gripped tighter on the red teether, settling down the animal.
"Good boy," she says in a soothing tone. "That's a good boy."

Unruly canine new to the leash? Hardly. Actually, the animal is a bit of a rarity in Loudoun: a miniature bull.

Called Lumpy, the full-grown, 35-inch-tall bovine is being tended to by cattle farmers Wendy, 28, and husband Ross Peterson, 38, on a secluded 30-acre farm southwest of Lovettsville.

"Basically, these are going to be pets," Ross Peterson, in farming his entire life, said of the future of the tiny cows. "They're perfect for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience in cattle."

With the size of farms in Loudoun shrinking and their owners oftentimes too busy with corporate careers to be full-time cattle ranchers, the couple hopes Lumpy's diminutive stature will be the perfect alternative to the hulking cows that now populate many of Loudoun's farms.

"There is a novelty factor," C. Corey Childs, director of Loudoun's Extension Office, said of miniatures cows. "But they do have a quality meat product."

Child said while rare in Loudoun's cattle population of about 35,000, the miniature animals are not unheard of. He said he knows of at least "a couple" other farms in Loudoun that are attempting to breed the animals.

He said their appeal is that that they require little feed and land and that their smaller size makes them less intimidating to keep as pets or to buy for whole bodies of meat.

According to the International Miniature Cattle and Breeders Society and Registry, there are 26 breeds of miniature cattle. To be considered miniature, mature cows cannot exceed a height of 42 inches. Those between 42 and 48 inches are called mid-size miniatures.

The organization says the tiny cattle eat a third of the feed as normal-size cows and can be kept on less than an acre of land surrounded only by a typical lawn fence.

"Just great for the small acreage farmer," the organization proclaims on its Web site.

On the Peterson's farm, Lumpy, a zebu breed common in India, Africa and Asia, is currently the only true miniature on the property. But several other brown-spotted mid-size miniatures do roam the farm, along with a herd of sheep and two large steers.

At about 200 pounds, Lumpy is about a third of the size of a normal-size cow. And while cute and manageable to handle, his size makes breeding with larger cattle problematic.

"When the cows are in heat, he tries his darnedest," Ross Peterson acknowledged, who once considered building Lumpy a stand so he could mount a female cow.

The couple, who runs the farm for owner and veterinarian Valerie Campbell, says the plan now will be breeding Lumpy with the farm's mid-size miniatures through artificial insemination.

The hope is to create a herd of "Loudoun breed" cows, said Ross Peterson, that are hardy, short and constantly hungry for grass.

"If you have 15 acres, it may take you all weekend to mow the lawn," he said, stroking the head of the cow reaching only his waist. "Just buy two of these and let them do all the work."