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SC Wisconsin | I'm in sort of the same boat, want to eventually milk on my own. Small dairy's around here are not available often, so I ended up buying 40 acres and a house. Built a cattle shed designed for heifers but keep steers in it for now, also built one grain bin and have to build another this spring. I'll be adding on to the shed I built so it will hold enough replacements for 120 cows. After that i plan on building a shop and maybe a commodity shed as well as getting a little more land bought. Then I'll just push my steer business as hard as I can until I get the money to build a freestall and hopefully put in 2 robots and I'll be off to the races LOL. I understand your frustration, some days it feels like things are really starting to move in the right direction, other days it feels like I'm just treading water. I promised myself I wouldn't quit my day job (or rather night job as I work 3rd shift) until I know that I can make it, but then again you never really know that you can make it until you try. I would say don't try it until there is at least a reasonable chance you can make it. Unfortunately milk isn't worth a darn right now and nobody knows when or if it will become profitable again, but we all know cost of living isn't going to go down any time soon. I agree with the above comments on talking to your FIL about financing it. I wouldn't recommend trying to work a day job while milking on your own because you will get behind on things that need to be taken care of on the farm and your profitability will go down for sure. I would recommend however trying to look for other ways to generate cash as a side business. I plan to keep raising steers after I start milking, but you mentioned welding and depending on your area there are always places looking for welders or you could even do some work on your own. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do. | |
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young farmer
