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Starting Member
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Last Login: 11/12/2009 3:36:57 PM
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| I was wondering if folks had any experience with or information about miniature dairy cow varieties. I would like to purchase a dairy cow, but was thinking about a miniature jersey so I could get a lot of cream-rich milk for my small family without ending up with gallons of extra milk. Can anyone provide any information about good breeds, breeders or information about the keeping miniature varieties and the pros and cons. Thank you.
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Senior Member
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| Miniature cattle are a huge fad right now, so if you are really wanting to get into them, be prepared to spend a lot of money. One of the complications about them is that a miniature cow can only be bred to a miniature bull - do you have AI service readily available in your area so that won't be a problem? If not, then be prepared to raise a bull as well, which I never would recommend to anyone who hasn't handled a bull before, as dairy bulls are among the most dangerous animals on the planet. Even a mini outweighs a human by at least 3 times their body weight. Add in four legs and a hard head (hopefully dehorned) and you are looking at a lot of trouble on your hands. If you are concerned about getting too much milk, you have other options. An older cow or a cow that is being culled from a dairy because she isn't producing enough milk for their purposes. A dairy/beef cross cow will usually produce very creamy milk at lower levels than what a full-blood dairy cow will. In fact, a beef cow's milk is typically creamier than a dairy cows - the less milk you get, the creamier it tends to be. Before you delve too deep, check out the Keeping a Family Cow forum and ask some questions there: http://familycow.proboards.com/index.cgi? Good luck and let us know what you decide.
Karen http://www.facebook.com/MrsKsCreations
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New Member
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Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
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double ditto on the FAD part!
and with unemployment at 10% I can understand the desire to be more self sustaining...what ever that REALLY means..
however this is not the way to do it. A fellow could get a full size cow, and work with others around him in roattion to milk the cow and make out far better than this minie idea
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Junior Member
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Last Login: 2/11/2011 2:43:12 PM
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| Miniature Jerseys........Are *mostly* a marketing gimmick. Jerseys started out small and were bred bigger for the show ring. An old style Jersey is 600-800 lbs. That is a small cow. Why would you want it smaller?? I personally find it hard enough to squat down to milk a standard sized Jersey, let alone a mini! The standard-sized Jerseys come up to upper stomach/mid chest-level on me and I am 5'10". Many of the "miniature Jerseys" on the market don't even look like Jerseys, as they are crossed with smaller breeds to get the smaller size. I want my Jersey, to be a Jersey! The "true" mini Jersey is out of sight in price. Compare paying $700-$1000 for a standard-sized Jersey, to paying $2000-$5000 for a mini! The minis will barely be any smaller than a small standard jersey, they will eat about the same amount of food, and they will cost you much, much more. For an idea of size of our standard Jerseys, check out "Bobbie" on this page of my website: http://ozarkjewels.webs.com/jerseycows.htm My sister hugging her cow in the photo, is about 5'7". She is bending down quite a bit. So a standard sized Jersey is not very big.
If you are concerned with too much milk, just buy a lower producing cow. Most average homestead milkers give 3-4 gallons a day. By the way, your minis will be giving just about the same amount. Excess milk is usable in so many ways. If you are doing butter, cheese, drinking milk and cooking with milk and still have extra, you can always raise calves or goat kids on the excess. Milk is awesome!
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians and Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net
Morningland Dairy Raw Milk Cheeses. www.morninglanddairy.com
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Starting Member
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If you're looking for milk without having to feed and care for a cow that produces too much milk, I'd look into dairy goats. They're easy to find a buck for, and if needed you could keep one and they're much less dangerous then bulls. They also have high fat milk and produce much less than a cow, but still enough to sustain a family.
Cait CWhite Oak Rabbitrywww.wix.com/cattlecait/whiteoakrabbitry
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 1/28/2012 4:13:22 PM
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| If you want a smaller milk cow for milk. A regular sized jersey is the way to go. Like the others have said. Another way of dealing with a milk cow that produces more milk then one can use. Would be to purchase a extra dairy calf (or two) from a local dairy. Milk the amount you will use a day then let the calves have the rest. You can produce a little extra income and not have to milk all the milk the cow produces ,only what you use .
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