Most of my friends that have small dairies don’t do it anymore. There’s just a couple left. Milk is a commodity so they are at the mercy of the market price so the big dairy operations can make it work because of their size. It’s the same thing in row crops, you have to be big to spread out your costs. If you’re farming small acreage you’re farming on the side and have a second job.
Not that surprising to me. It's the hobby farm of choice for a reason. That reason is (I think) that you can mostly predict how much you're going to lose while spending less time and money (compared to rowcrop farming at least; really don't know why so many doctors and business owners did cows instead of just planting timber unless it's that they wanted pastureland on their property).
I think most on here miss on the “young” part.
Isn’t it always just cheaper to have calves? I mean.. don’t the cows 17 for free?
Pretty sure you're gonna want to figure a bull in there at some point if you want calves**
Yes always but if you want to expand your herd more you’ll have to go to market and buy cows and the cattle market is pretty insane right now.
Farms primarily focus on cultivating crops, vegetables, or fruits, often involving intensive soil management and consistent daily routines. Ranches focus on grazing and raising livestock (like cattle or sheep) over vast areas of land. While farms are typically smaller and crop-centric, ranches are defined by large-scale, livestock-focused operations. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
If you can find some they can definitely do that. A guy here that had about 10 acres with Kudzu all over it had goats put on it. Within a couple of weeks it was like night and day.
My grandfather owned a dairy farm and 2 of his 10 kids took it over.
Yeah, I'm aware. I should have used *** That is why my very first response to the OP was what it was and also why I CAPITALIZED farming. Also, Ranchers have cattle not just cows.
THIS. Most of it is trying to improve soil and get rid of trash plants in pasture. I just sprigged some sumrall 007 Bermuda in a pasture and can’t wait to see what it does.
In a perfect world you have halve female, heifers, and half male, that become steers. The heifers replenish the herd as older cows age out and the steers are sold. Some years you get heavy male calves and a steer is cheaper than a heifer so you have to buy females to replace breeding cows. It’s all one big tax exemption until you decide to completely sell out.
