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  • From: clhw AT InfoAve.Net (clhw)
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Small dairy farmer
  • Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2004 18:16:53 -0500

A friend of ours has been doing this type of dairy farming since not long
after we sold our dairy herd in 1985. He rotates pastures, feeds no
commercial grains, does not use pesticides, herbicides, growth stimulants,
milk stimulating hormones, and almost no medications. He has opened, with
his family and neighbors, a small store in which he sells his milk, fresh
veggies, has a pick-it-yourself set up for several fruits and veggies
(right now he is establishing a grape arbor). They also sell cheese, fresh
eggs, and several canned foods which he purchases (mostly from Amish in
Ohio). He maintains, as required in South Carolina, a Grade A dairy and the
only treatment done to their fresh milk and buttermilk is to pasteurize it.
The milk is not homogenized.

He told me last month, that he only has a couple of cases of mastitis a
year, has only had one case of milk fever (low calcium) in 18 months, and
has only had one still birth in 3 years. In other words, without pushing
the high protein to produce high amounts of milk, his Holstein cows (and a
couple of Brown Swiss) remain healthy. He feeds roughage cut on his place
and which neighbors also cut and sell to him. I'm not sure but I believe he
has about 60 head in his milk line.

If we were to get back into the dairy business, I'd certainly want to
emulate what Tom Trantham has done. His dairy: The Happy Cow. A thriving
small business which employs the family, 3 generations of them, and the
community.
Lynn

>tvoivozhd---Small dairy farming, especially small, seasonal dairy
>farming with stockpiled forage accumulating from mid-August forward, can
>make good money---if spring and summer grazing practices add more than
>usual to the bottom line.

>This fall, ARS soil scientist Lloyd B. Owens and colleagues at Coshocton
>are using simple electric fences to create small paddocks to rotate
>cattle from one part of a pasture to another every day or two. They are
>testing a system called management-intensive, or rotational, dairy grazing.







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