Any dairy farmers
- Thread starter SweetOpal
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My cousin owns and runs a dairy. Nice sized one but not huge. Enough to make them well off though. He got into it because his father owned the dairy and he has worked there his whole life. I also worked there when I was very young. I drove a backhoe when I was just four years old out there. So he owns it and runs it now but, just before my Uncle died they had a choice to go forward and buy the new one or get out of it completely, they chose to buy the new one and stay in the business. Well, my Uncle died about a week after they went into Escrow on the new dairy. My cousin has his daughters out there adn they are now learning the business too. Funny thing too, teh woman he married also grew up on a dairy but in Idaho. We always tease her about that, that she just couldn't resist the smell! LOL But of course after you have been out there for an hour you cannot even smell it anymore so it is just teasing.
MeadowRidge Farm
Well-Known Member
We use to be a dairy farm :bgrin but my hubby also works out and it was just getting to be to much for him to get up at 3 am to start all the milk machines, and then go to work after that and be there by 6:30am. I did the milking for a long time, but about 13 yrs ago, we just deceided to say enough with the cows. We still have the farm and we still have beefers, but now the barn has been converted for my minis.
: :bgrin , so much easier to take care of and NO milking, but I do miss those milk checks :bgrin
: Corinne
Brenlane Farms
Member
We are dairy farmers here in Ontario Canada, I am mainly active on the mini donkey forum. Dairy farming is a lot of fun and very rewarding. It is harder to market breeding stock dairy cattle up here in Canada with the U.S boarder being shut shince BSE...but it is getting better as we have become more self sufficient and not rely so heavily on the U.S. markets and with the boarder opening to some youngstock, but still no show cows getting across the boarder..
Cheers to dairy farmers!
Russell
Cheers to dairy farmers!
Russell
Had to post. I didn t realize there were that many dairy farmers on this site. Although I dont claim to be a dairy farmer myself, I have been helping out about three days a week at my dear friends. I honestly never knew how much real work that is. I respect anyone who can do that 365 days a year. I am helping them with their breeding and they are getting into red holsteins. Of the 128 cows milking, about 14 are reds. Their are also about 20 red carriers. Since I am a genetics fan, I have convinced them to change the bulls over to red.
I am looking for at least one breeding age red holstein, Reg. bull (18months or up) . If any of you dairy's know of any, up to three of them, could you contact me at ccfminis@msn.com. It would be a blessing.
I would be willing to travel, looking in wisconsin, indiania, ohio, pennsylvania, new york, or anywhere on the east part of us. I never knew how hard it is to find a red holstein.
I am looking for at least one breeding age red holstein, Reg. bull (18months or up) . If any of you dairy's know of any, up to three of them, could you contact me at ccfminis@msn.com. It would be a blessing.
I would be willing to travel, looking in wisconsin, indiania, ohio, pennsylvania, new york, or anywhere on the east part of us. I never knew how hard it is to find a red holstein.
Lewella
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I married into it
: My husband and his brother are the 4th generation on their family dairy farm (the farm has been in the family for over 100 years). Right now we are milking just over 80 cows. We are located in Central Minnesota in Morrison County which is a very heavy dairy area.
Tracy S - there are quite a few folks in this area with a few reds in the herd - one of my husband's second cousins was breeding for red for a while but I'm not sure if he still is or not. It's been a while since I looked through the Select Sires catalog but in the past they have always had a pretty good selection of red and red carrier semen available.
:
Tracy S - there are quite a few folks in this area with a few reds in the herd - one of my husband's second cousins was breeding for red for a while but I'm not sure if he still is or not. It's been a while since I looked through the Select Sires catalog but in the past they have always had a pretty good selection of red and red carrier semen available.
Thank you Lewella. I have looked at select sires, but my friends herd, is not an ai herd.
He wants something already breeding age, and select sires doesnt have any available. They did have some bulls that wouldnt ship, but none that are 18 months .
He wants something already breeding age, and select sires doesnt have any available. They did have some bulls that wouldnt ship, but none that are 18 months .
wow, this is great. Meadowridge, how many were you milking? How many cows does it take to be successful at it. We have been in the trucking industry for 15 years and very successful with it, however we are in business with my brother in law and he is majority owner. We own a brokerage company with him and then a few trucks on our own. We would like to leave So. Cal and have always wanted to have a diary, we are not afraid of hard work. We have found a few that are for sale around the country and was wondering how many it takes to make a living. We have 2 children and would like to be able to give them the option of a family business, when they are ready.
Lewella
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I think how many it takes to make a living depends a lot on where you are in the country. Where I'm in Central Minnesota the average sized dairy farm is probably milking around 60 cows. We milk around 80. The neighbor just south of us milks around 50, another neighbor milks around 30, another neighbor is milking just shy of 500 (hired labor needed), and I know several people only milking about 20.
[SIZE=14pt]I dont own one but I put in 8 years at one... it was a 300 head dairy that ran about 500 replacement heifers. I milked the high group which got milked 3x a day I did the second milking. They sold about 20,000 pounds a day. Had the largest tank in Missouri. They closed down bacause 1 brother decided the grass was greener and ran off with the hired herd manager, and it became too much for 1 man to run. They had about 10 employees working but it was just too much. So sad to see all the family farms dieing out like that. They had been a family farm for 30 years.[/SIZE]
April
April
SHANA
Well-Known Member
We have jersey cows, run about 50 head, milk on average 25 cows. Right now we are milking 15 as the other cows we dried off as they will calve in March. There is nothing better than fresh milk, cream, homemade butter, homemade cheese, homemade whip cream and my husbands favourite homemade icecream. That is what we are having tonight. Yummy. :aktion033:
