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["Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>]

The dairy where I was going to get a heifer calf for 4-H when I was a kid 
was in the family for about 75 years then.  They're still in the business. 
I think they run about 250 cows.

Humboldt County is a world apart from most dairy country in CA.  We have 
lots of Irish immigrants because the country reminds them of Ireland, so 
dairies do great with little or no need to buy feed.  The area known as the 
Arcata Bottoms is home to another dairy that is about 400 acres.  He runs 
mostly Holsteins with a few Guernsey and Jersey.

Down in Sonoma County the dairies are almost all old family places but quite 
large.  I think the "small" ones are 100 acres.  I know a couple that 
contract with Clover/Stornetta Farms to provide organic milk are well over 
600 acres each.  I know Camozzi's is over 600 acres and he's third 
generation.

Not trusting to my memory, I went and looked it up.  In SoCo there are 98 
dairies with the average having 330 cows,  the smallest being 110 and the 
largest 1,100.

I should say "were" since the National Milk Producers Federation is busy 
killing off cows again.  I think that put about 20 dairies out of business, 
or maybe more.  However, quite a few of the family dairies are simply 
continuing to raise heifers and waiting the year or 18 months they have to 
wait to not be penalized and will start up again.

Lynda
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we 
are
to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."  Theordore
Roosevelt, 1918.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>


> I've always thought California is a whole different world :-) Our minimum
> wage is $7.25/hour ($2.83 for waiters).
>
> The dairies here are mostly old, many are Century Farms (in the same 
> family
> for at least 100 years), and many are still in the original barn...tie
> stalls and a pipeline. The more modern ones have put in a milking parlor.
> All Grade A, but no fancy 'merry go rounds' (as they call them here) in
> Tioga County. And most dairies here would be what you consider "mom and
> pop"...200 cows is considered large.