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Can a small dairy farm survive milking Brown Swiss cows?

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I was wondering what every one here thought? I was thinking about getting into small time dairy farming (not in MD due land prices) with Brown Swiss cows. strating out very small and not relying on the dairy as the sole means of income.
 
I know of one right by here doing ok. brain dead right now can't remember if it is Jerseys or Brown Swiss ? they get more for their milk over holsteins due to higher butter fat content.
 
May have to find a market other than selling it to a processor, such as custom cheese or milk straight off the cow. i think the later is getting harder to do due to regulations but remeber people are sometimes willing to pay more for items that they know where they came from. But the economy is doing a toilet swirl also so may be hard at first.
 
If Brown Swiss is the kind you like go for it, I quit dairing in 1996, was milking Jerseys. I don"t think any one breed is better than another, go with what you like, Remember with milk prices what they are, high fertilizer, fuel equipment power costs it will be very very rough even with an off the farm job, and you won"t have much if any time for your self.
 
Brown Swiss generally eat like a Holstein, but milk like a Jersey. You'd just about have to have some kind of "hook" based on the breed (picture of Heidi hand-milking on a stool, out in the field with the Alps in the background, on your cheese or milk labels, etc.). That's not so easy anymore either, because people have no concept of differences in breeds, and I think you'd have trouble getting the premium price you need to come out on it.
 
yes i do... there are 2 farms next to me who do it w/ jerseys one has 40 one has 24... if you like it go for it.. there are too many big farms now a days.. I raise heifers and beefers on the side of my everyday trucking job and would rather be in the barn than any were else
 
My dad milked holsteins , 1 uncle miked jersey, another brown swiss, they are all good producers .big spotted cow produced on the average more milk jersery hiher butterfat, brown swiss more bruises, they were the harded of the three to handle ,.
 
I milked cows for 33 years,so I guess my question would be,if it's not gonna be your sole means of income,why do you want to tie yourself down to it? I don't think you have any idea what you're getting yourself into.
 
The reason I chose Brown Swiss was becouse I herd they had a better temperment, so I herd anyway. have been around holsteins and they seem to have a good temperment from my experance maybe will stick to holsteins.
 
There are a couple here in Western Mass with Jersey's. We have a local home delivery Jersey farm who has gotten big enough to purchase Jersey milk from other farms. The few others sell raw milk or their own cheese. I do not know of any that are strictly Brown Swiss.
 
I used to work for a guy who had Guernseys. He milked about 40 and did quite well. He claimed they ate enough less than Holsteins that they more than offset the smaller volume of milk. He sold to a Mozzerella cheese factory and got a hefty premium over Holstein milk. He explained that it isn't the volume of milk your cows make, it's the difference between what the milk brings in in dollars and what it costs to make it. This was before the organic craze. If you do that you will get extra as well.
 
You could do something crazy and get a few of each and see what you get and which you like. I always thought the Swiss were supposed to be hardier and hold up better under adverse conditions. I'd lean toward the Jersey and Holstein combo. Managed diversification can be a benefit. I'd look into the organic side it to get the most out of your efforts. That could be hard if you're not producing your own feed though. I can help a bit on the organics if you're interested. There are more and more small guys going out and you may find equipment pretty reasonable because of that. Good luck and more power to you!
 
Ive been there and done what You want to do.Honestly you are better off starting off with small herd of beef cows so You arent tied down quite so bad.You will end up using your paycheck to pay for feed and supply expenses.In order for it to work Corn would have to drop to $1 per bushel,and milk prices soar to make any money.As far as smaller cows eating less,thats B.S. I had a few Jerseys with Holsteins.I fed in the barn,and the Jersey Cows would usually run out of feed before the Holsteins,and they give 30% less milk,but a couple in a small herd can raise butterfat bonuses on your milk check
 
There isn't currently a MILC program out there from the Federal Gov't. There are plans for one and sign-ups should be starting anytime now. That's only if milk drops below $16.94 I hear.
 
Amen. The electric bill for running the milking machines and water heater for cleanup are going to be a killer.
 
I started farming from scratch in '72- dairy, hog, crop. Had some neighbors that thought they could work a job off the farm and farm at the same time. Crops, hogs, beef- that is difficult, but possible. Dairy- no way. You cannot do justice to your off-farm job and the cows at the same time. Go work on a dairy to learn- then beg, borrow, steal, enough to start full time. ok, forget the steal part. Successful dairy needs full time attention to get the cows fed, bred back to maintain calving interval, grow feed, etc. None of those dual types survived the last three decades.
 
Rick,

I'm not trying to be a smart-alec, I'm just asking since your post didn't address the issue.

Have you ever milked cows? I have a small herd of black Angus cows that I raise for the calves which I then sell. But, I lived my youngest years on a dairy farm and I worked for a dairy farmer a few years ago.

The cost of getting into the business is astronomical. The daily operating costs are terrific. The demands on your time are outrageous. The skill and knowledge required to care for and handle the herd is overwhelming. The headaches associated with maintenance on the equipment and facilities is taxing. Etc. Etc.

You might have much more experience dairying than I do, so maybe this means nothing to you. If you don't, I'd suggest that you find a dairy to work on for a few years before you try to go on your own.

Just my thoughts.

Tom in TN
 
I have a small herd of French Canadinees they are similar to the Brown Swiss.I don't milk them but sell hefiers to farmers that use them in their dairies and the feedback has been good on them
 
Guernseys have a lot higher butterfat content. Maybe thats what you are thinking of.
They are a lot smaller, but eat just as much as a Holstein...according to my brother who milked them for a few years.
 
I've seen it done by going organic and rotational grazing. A couple with some kids moved out of the Twin Cities 10 years ago to an old farm site, and started milking with Jersey crosses. Had to build the barn first. They've done it. Now milking 40, and their debt is down. Another young neighbor of ours is just starting down the same road, he's starting with about 20.
 
Dont let people scare you. I milk about 100 holsteins and farm about 500 acres and do machine repair on the side. My wife and I started farming 3 years ago and built a new parlor and freestall barn 2 years ago. My wife takes care of herd health and I do all the feeding,crops,equipment, and occasionally milk in the morning to give her a day off.We do all the work ourselves and only need extra help during harvest(chopping corn) Another local farmer helps me chop and I go help him chop. The buddy system works great.We put in alot of hours like 16 hour days most times but I would not trade it for anything.Alot of local farmers said we were crazy to milk cows but I dont care what they think. You have do do something you really love to do_One thing my grandfather always taught me was to take care of the cows,keep them well fed, and as comfortable as possible and they will always repay the favor. Good luck.
 
You know.... I think there's a huge amount of merit to the idea that you go to work for someone pulling t!ts before you buy your own. I think if you find the right guy to work for, some would be willing to help you set up your own herd. Arrangements can be made where they give you a certai number of calves as bonuses... then the farm raises them and carries them in the milking string when the time comes, and when you are eventually ready to leave and start your own operation, you have animals and some equity to work with. Those kind of deals are probably rare but there are people out there who would consider it. I have friends who've done that...

Beyond that, if you haven't milked cows, I think you've got a steep learning curve ahead of you. Breeding and feeding cows requires a lot of time and it' not something that takes second place to other jobs very well. If you don't look after that end the rest comes to a stop fairly quickly. Gaining that experience while working for someone else could be a great benefit to you. When you're ready then go out and rent or buy a farm to get going... but I don't think the milking and off farm job will work. It just doesn't.
Once you get into it you'll also quickly find out why dairy operations are so large today. You've got a lot of overhead to carry even on a small farm... and a lot of that can't be avoided very easily, so it quickly becomes a matter of scale.
You'll also probably find that holsteins are the most productive. It's not uncommon to see them at 4% fat and 3.5+ on protein today with current genetics and a feeding strategy aimed at making fat... and you still get a lot more milk. That said, go with what you like... but I tend to think that the industry as a whole uses holsteins for a very good reason.
Good luck to you. It's a steep road you're on.

Rod
 
One other thing I forgot to mention is(this will probably make alot of people angry so I will say I am sorry in advance) most people that tell you it is to much work and you are so tied down are just plain lazy. Just because they dont want to work hard and put in the hours doesnt mean you cant do it. Sure I have went to the barn sick to milk and feed but I would rather do what I do sick then go punch a clock for someone else.
 
My motto the last 15 years has been, " The less I farm, the more money I make"

Sold the cattle last summer, paid off all the debt. I share crop the row crop ground and get 1/3 of the crop for no cash outlay.

Plus I now have time for my hobbies, ole tractors.

I tried the part time stuff. I would be in Arkansas working and the wife would call to say the bull was gone, or the water froze up. I would be in Oklahoma working and would get a call, one of the cows was real sick and was down.
Sold them to a neighbor and now I can drive by and look at them. Best thing I ever did. It was different when my dad was alive, he could cover these things.

Dont get me wrong, farming is the best life there is, but you just have to do one or the other ( I am talking livestock here). The part time stuff is a killer. Farming, or dairy is too unpredictable. If something goes wrong, you need to be there now, not tomorrow. It really made me sick when I would loose a newborn calf, that I could have, and should have saved, but I was in another state working my full time job.


Gene

 
My dad did that for years had about 40 milking Gurnsey's. They ate good too. To keep a good supply of milk you will need heifers old enough to breed so you have a steady supply of milk cows that are dried off until they give birth. We had a young stock barn too along with pregnant cows.

You get a lot of manure from this many animals and you need a good supply of food like hay and silage and grain. This isn't a job when you don't feel liking going to the barn. They need to be fed at least twice a day to keep milk production up. My brother and I both worked in the barns. He helped with the milking and I cleaned the young stock barn and fed them. They need a constant supply of water too. We did this before heading off to school. This was for the morning milking. We helped in the evening too as they need milking again and they all need to be fed again. Gutters had to be cleaned twice a day since they were kept inside about 6 months out of the year. My dad was happy as a pig in slop doing that every day 7 days a week.

When the Korean War broke out that started a change. My brother joined the Air Force in 1951 3 days after we graduated. Eighteen months later I got drafted into the Army. I was still helping
with the morning milking up until the day I got drafted. Too much for my dad to do as he was getting up in years. Got rid of the farm in 1954. Hal
 
Grew up on a dairy did it for a few years too confining and don't forget Milk inspectors, you just can't throw up a leanto and milk cows and sell Grade A they have rules then there are calves and housing which goes with lactating females plus disease issues,flies, hauling maure etc. most everything already mentioned. Oh, then there is WINTER the most dreaded part of dairying because they become family because they depend on you for everything food, water, housing and of course miking Oh then there are dry cows and heifers also breeding of the herd in timely fashion, on and on. Have fun. Makes me appreciate being out of the biz for over thirty years and having a bad day at work. FYI, I worked awhile with a dairy consigner and we did a lot of cleanup on once was very nice dairy farms but the the family became very tired of the whole thing and dairy prices have not increased in much in over 40 years.Good Luck
 
I just can't remember ! They are all 3 brown aren't they ? I'm drawing a blank . I really don't know much about cows anyhow and perfer to keep it that way. No milking for me !
 
Holstein is the hands down breed of choice for a hundred or more reasons. Brown Swiss are very pretty. So are Jerseys. Holstein is the breed of choice though and that's based on loads of experience. This will probably start one of those "My Farmall is better than your John Deere" fights but I speak the truth.
 
Stick with the holsteins. Im in a small 'nest' of dairy farms. It can be done and right next to me are examples of how to do it and how not to do it. One neighbor has 40-50 acres, and had 40 good cows. He tried buying all his inputs and pasturing the cows. Its about sunk him. The other has 100 acres and grows it all in corn for silage, cuts his hay on share on other peoples farms. Its still a high overhead business but he seems to be doing ok. Spend your money on cows, get the best you can buy, then equipment, then land and buildings.
 
hi i read your post and i just thought i"d let you know that i am 16 years old (seriously) and i have been trying to start my own dairy farm right now i have 12 cows 4 which are milking the rest are hefiers and fat steers. but my family has dairy background they just didnt want to do the business anymore except a couple cousins. i remember my family telling me i was crazy for wanting to milk cows so far i have bought all my equipment, supplies, And cattle from my own money but i love working at my job (i help a guy milk 120 cows and other stuff and i love it)anyways if your doing a milking parlor talk to your inspector as your building it it helps alot trust me!!! its possible, i still running my farm!
 
You will need to keep good records too. We weighed all our milk from each cow and if they weren't very good milkers they were sent to the soup factory. Breeding dates need to be recorded
and checked to see if they're pregnant and birthing dates need to be recorded. Having to use a bull for breeding isn't the safest job either. Hal
 
2 points to consider.

What type of market do you have? Indiana is a major producer of ice cream, so high cream content is in demand for that. In other areas cheese is a big product, so they want high milk solids. If your market is for fluid milk, then all they worry about is volume. What your market is should determine what breed you raise.

Have you considered grass based and seasonal dairying? You get less milk per cow, but many claim that the lower cost means that they make more money per cow. And some farmers have all the cows come fresh at the same time. That way they milk 9 months and then have 3 months for vacation, maintenance, and such.

I would talk to my local extension agent and the local milk marketer about these issues if I was going into dairying.
 
I would be honored if you could give me a few of those hundred reasons you spoke of. Until then there is nothing special about Holsteins other then the amount of liquid they can produce. My dairy was strictly Holstein at one point but it now is about 75% Swiss, 12% Jersey and 12% Holstein. Any breed that is pure bred is going to have some issues because you are concentrating the strengths as well as the weaknesses found in that breed. There is alot to be said for the hybrid vigor you get when you cross breed.
The great thing about Swiss cows is that they have the ability to make darn near the same amount of milk production as a Holstein. They do have higher components and with the pricing structure we use now, it does pay to use the higher component breeds. The way that Swiss really shine is in a grazing environment. I do not even have a barn to keep the cattle in, they are outdoors 365 and do amazing. I have seen summer days where the holstein were standing in the shade literally panting, and you look out to the swiss who are out grazing, not bothered nearly as much by the heat.
 
That may be true about old swiss genetics but it is completely not true today. Swiss cattle in the same management scenario can make with in 10% of the milk production of a holstein counterpart, only with higher components. I know of three large herds in Michigan that run swiss cattle in their herd of holsteins and after many years continue to do so. One of those is Green Meadows farm in St Johns as well as Webster Ridge dairy in Ovid. Swiss cattle are also still hardier, have more sound feet and legs.
 
ALL of the small time dairy farmers around here no longer milk cows. 30 years ago, there were at least 10 within 5 miles of where I live. It just became uneconomical.

By small time, I mean milking up to about 50 cows. The remaining few large dairies probably milk a couple hundred all the time.

And you are just as tied down with 5 cows as you are with lots more. You always have to be there. The old small dairies around here usually had multiple kids that helped with the constant work. No family vacations with everyone along, ever. And when the kids grew up and went away, they quit milking cows fairly soon.

When I was a kid in the 60's, we milked up to 5 cows by hand and sold raw, whole milk to many customers, who had to pick it up at our farm. We separated the remaining milk and sold the cream to a local creamery, feeding the skim milk to hogs. Selling raw milk and cream was legal then, at least the way we were doing it. I have been told that it is not now. That same creamery still exists, but when I asked if they still bought cream from farmers, they said they hadn't done that for about 20 years. So today, our little dairy operation would no longer have any LEGAL market for our products.

There is a whole lot more regulation today, and I would guess that much of that regulation is not favorable to the little guy.

You might want to try working on a dairy for a while to see how you like that life before you try going out on your own. It is my guess that you will decide that the return for the amount of work and investment it would take makes it not worth it. Good luck!
 
These people do it. Md would probably be an ideal location for an operation like this. You might want to give them a visit or possibly do an internship there. An MD runs it, I think.Located on the nw side of Indy.


http://traderspointcreamery.com/
 
Unexcelled and unequalled production, greater income over feed costs, unequaled genetic merit, ability to adapt to a wide variety of environmental conditions, 19 million registered in the US although most are not registered, some think there are over 150 million nationwide providing an unequaled genetic base, 67,914 pounds of milk from one cow milked twice daily for 365 days although that record may have been broken by yet another holstein. I knew this would bring out the best in the grand old tractor war tradition. ;>)
 
i just thought id let you know that i would be considering milking either a holstein or a jersey. i have jerseys and holsteins(mentioned in previous post) but jerseys are cheaper and eat less and they are also smaller and give lots of butterfat very good cows to milk. now my holsteins are bigger and they give more milk but they eat alot cause they are bigger. i would try to stay away from swiss cows(my opinion). may be better to get a couple of springer cows then you get a chance of having a heifer out of her or maybe just getting ready to breed heifers and then that will give you time to set everythig up(like a parlor)
 
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