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Capac, Michigan | Not very many pictures of dairy cattle on here so I thought I would put some up of my MICRO sized herd. Enjoy!!!!!
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| Nice pics, I sure like to see pics of other guys places. I see you buy chems. from IBA, I do as well. How is a flat barn to milk in? My grandad had a flat barn, as well as my father in law, my father in law converted his to a parlor. I currently milk in it, we have a double 6 parallel in it. Also what's the sump pump for in milk tank room? No floor drain? |
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| O.K. I'm not being a smart alec or anything, or trying to diminish your herd in any way. Very, very nice pics by the way. My wife and I were looking into dairying in the mid 90's, and I made a few trips around looking at dairies. One thing I noticed in Wisconsin, was that there were quite a few, uhm, "recreational" herds for lack of a better word. Guys milking 15 or 20 cows and holding down a full time job besides. What's the allure?
Edited by Pofarmer 2/24/2011 22:06
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NE Indiana | How many head do you milk? |
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | Nice pictures of a good looking, cared for cows in a nice smaller scale operation in a northern winter. Those Holsteins look like they are going to burst with milk! Good looking calves too - with blankets no less! Thank you for the pictures. Jim at Dawn |
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S.C. Wisconsin | Thank you for the pictures! |
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Capac, Michigan | I knew the pump would get some questions, the drain is plugged there's a small crock outside that needs to be dug up and cleaned out. It gets full of straw and mud and won't let it flow, not a fun job. I am currently milking 10 and have 4 more that are dry. I started 4 yrs ago with 2 fresh heifers and it has slowly grown to this. I was a herdsman up till Aug now just my own cows. I keep every calf that is born. I raise my bull calves and sell them as fats and my heifers to join the herd. The better I take care of my cows the better they take care of me. I pick up a cow here and there when I have the extra cash. It will keep growing, but I will not borrow money to buy cows. Been there done that! |
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Croswell, Michigan | Is it hard to find someone to pick up your milk when you have a small herd like that? |
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NE SD | Clean, content and VERY productive cows. The blankets show care and concern of a stockman that loves his livestock. It's not ALL about the $$$ Nice herd Andrew. Some days I wish we still had our little brown cows around, thanks for sharing |
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Capac, Michigan | Nope, a family of milk haulers from your neighboring town of Peck haul my milk. Used to get picked up every three days now every other day, and two more fresh cows and it will have to be every day. |
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Croswell, Michigan | Good! I'm glad to see the entire dairy industry hasn't gone to 1000+ cows yet. |
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Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot | Looks good. I've been around some very large dairy operations (1,000-5,000 cow) in CA, so it is nice to see a small outfit as well. Everyone gets too worried about how many cows or acres a guy has, long as you are making it work for you.
BTW, those are some nice looking cows. I'm not a dairyman by any means, but it looks like they are strong milkers. |
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| Thanks for sharing your pics. |
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Palestine, IL 62451 | Thanks for the pics. The holding tank is just like the one we had. When I started in 1987, we hadn't had milkers for about twelve years so I sold the tank to some guys that were going to put it in the woods for maple syrup,(at least that is what they told me.) If you need a stirator for that tank let me know I believe I still have the one out of ours. |
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| I like your pics. I was wondering if that is a Sunset bulk tank? We had a Sunset tank that looked like that. Grandpa had put it in in '57, about 7 years ago we put in a larger tank because it had gotten too small.
Keep up the good (and hard) work.
Nathan |
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Gettysburg, PA | that you are not supposed to exist anymore? Only big corporate farms exist today! Didn't you get the memo. :) We still have a few small dairys like yours here and I love when we can work with them!! Great pictures and you should be very proud of yourself! |
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| I'd like to know the rest of the story . I would think 10 cows would barely keep the lights on , let alone cover the 100's of different inputs that a dairy has . My wife and I looked at takeing over her folks farm 20 years ago and I couldn't make a 125 cow dairy pencil then . |
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Capac, Michigan | Get LOTS of milk, do a lot of horse trading, raise your own feed, have no employees. Having steers to sell in a bind is a real help. Some bigger projects that require alot of money take longer to accomplish. It took me a year and then some to get the freestalls in, from pouring the cement curb to buying stalls and posts, and sand. Its a big investment when you have 10 cows and you are getting $12 milk at the start, but little by little I got it done. |
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mn | great job and nice pics, I too am glad to see a small dairy, and love the cash for cow idea! I beleive there are alot more smaller farms/farmers then we are led to beleive, shoot down by us if you don't farm 1000+ ac your a hobby farmer, well maybe but I farm on the wkends and drive otr and all bills are paid. life is good. so good for you and keep up the good work. small and profitable is better then big and broke. |
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just a tish NE of central ND | I like you photos...... brings me memories of a different time when we milked.(only 4 years ago though)There used to be a couple of dairy's like yours in every section or two here in EVERY direction . Now there are only 2 left in our entire county and I think there is only one in the neighboring county.At one time my last cheese plant in ND here had over 750 customors to buy milk from. Now he is gone too... |
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mid minnesota | hows your scc with the sand bedding in the freestalls? |
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My Micro Dairy Pics!!!
