This might be for a family that didn't want lots of milk daily, just for personal use. But yes, you have to take care of any animal properly. Thanks for posting.
The problem with mini cows is that they are quite a bit more expensive than regular cows. We're wanting to get Dexters, which are naturally small, and can be used for beef, milk, or as oxen.
I’d bet they’d make better quality milk than a dairy cow. Compare the milk protein and fat between an Angus and a Holstein. The milk from a dairy cow actually has less fat and protein.
Beef cows aren’t used for milk because they don’t put out the volume and would lose insane amounts of money at a dairy.
I had a teacher who had a dairy farm (along with her siblings) that we visited on fieldtrips. I had no idea the work involved. It starts before the sun goes up and ends after the sun goes down.
Beef cows on the other hand are much easier. That is a game of feeding and breeding and selling. Still a massive amount of work.
For anyone who actually dairy’s, if you only graze them, they will not produce a lot of milk. To get milk daily you will need to supplement their diet with a grain food type. This can be achieved by its a protein cube and standard beef stock grain. Dairy cows need a 14% protein diet to maintain healthy milk levels.
Also, you must milk them twice a day 7 days a week or your cows will get mastitis. Do not be deceived by bad advice that’s says “you don’t have to milk them twice daily”. It’s a complete lie, and your cow will get very sick.
To get milk, you must breed your cow. You can typically milk a cow for 5 months at a time, then they need be turned dry. You could do 3 cows, and space out when they have a calf to satisfy not over milking them. Having milk cows is a lot of work. Do not be fooled into thinking it’s easy breezy
Can confirm. Four generations of family are dairy farming in PA. Spent my summers there growing up and holy fuck dairy cows were 24/7 before normies even knew of such a thing. Also, fat free milk is fake and gay.
yes it is and I truly thank the farmers in this world. thank you, farmers. I love you. I admire you. I respect you. I will do anything I can to help you. Just ask.
Raised mini pigs for a few years (scientific purposes). There are mini pigs. Anyone who says otherwise is just being lied to by the internet. Granted, you can get taken by someone selling a Yucatan piglet, but there are legitimately pigs in the 45-65 pound range full grown.
They're just potbellied pigs that have been selectively bred (like dogs) to be super small... relatively.... But they ARE small.
That said, everything ELSE about mini pigs is a complete lie. They shit everywhere, are very difficult to train, consume much more food/lb than their true sized counterparts, bite like devils and they can still squeal loud enough to shatter glass.
It's a beast. You wouldn't get one before reading thoroughly about it, whatever the internet has to offer, including blogs and videos. There are many kinds and breeds. You would research which kind might be good for you.
You need a yard but I haven't figured out yet how big it has to be, per cow.
Once, every family had a Family Cow.
It's not unprecedented but yes you have to know what you are doing.
For full sized cows, the recommendation I have seen is 2 acres per cow. I wouldn't want to try the mini breeds with less than an acre of dedicated fenced grazing area with full sun for maximum grass growth.
sister's full size cows are pets. one is about 25 yrs old and her pshyco 'baby' attack cow -inbred and the mother was already pregnant when given to her- is almost as old and still nurses. had 2 more - a male that died of old age, the other is a big baby that loves people and petting. takes a LOT to feed them, even tho they have a pretty big pasture. hay and sweet feed, vitamins. plus they need nail/horn trims and sometimes founder or get lame, and that takes a lot of bute.
she told me a long time ago and i can't remember which for sure. brown with white face, i think it was hereford. she got angel when she was pregnant and she was given to her because the bull was related and they didn't want inbreds. the other cow was born in 1997 and given as a calf, so i got it wrong, emily's the 25 yr old, the one that had the calf is the oldest by about 2 yrs. they're all old for cows. emily has few teeth and can't digest well so requires chaffehay. the things we do, the money we spend for our pets. they're worth it.
A Hereford would fit that description. I guess they could live to 25 yo if they were pampered. That’s pretty amazing. Most farmers sell the mommas at about 10 yo.
Cows do make great pets if you have the space. My son has one he’s fond of. She runs over to him every time she sees him. She wants food but is almost as happy with being pet(petted?).
that's the way emily is, she sees somebody and waddles to the fence for petting and treats. bad thing now is, there are so few vets that come out when needed anymore. sis has to do it all now. but she does have friends with backhoes so when they die of old age all she has to do is call.
Encourage her to have them put down when it’s time instead of letting them die of old age. Eventually the cows will not be able to absorb enough nutrients. They will not be able to get up one day and will suffer. It’s not pretty.
she did that a few years ago and it was a nightmare. she had someone come out to shoot him and they hit him right between the eyes and he wouldn't go down, took several tries and that was more awful than him just dying on his own. terrible death. would have had a vet use euthanasia but they won't come out anymore.
The shooter didn’t know what he was doing. I’ve had to put them down a few times and it never took more than one shot. My vet even uses a 22 mag to put them down. It’s the cheapest and easiest way and is very humane if done right.
You have to imagine an X between the eyes and ears. Hit the middle of the X and angle the round into the spinal cord. It’s instant. You need to know what you’re doing though.
If a cow was shot between the eyes there’s a good chance the central nervous system wasn’t even hit. It sounds a horrible experience.
A cow has a huge head and tiny brain. It is harder to aim through something then clean line of sight. OKRancher has good advice, but I can imagine it isn't hard to miss. Thick skull could redirect the bullet too.
The miniatures take a lot less food, produce less poop, need smaller shelter, and less of everything. BUT they of course need care, brushing, regular milking on a schedule and on and on.
The minis will give both milk and meat. Done right.
And they are trainable.
It's a whole project, because it is a beast with needs and behaviors.
My thought was for milk for family food. Private consumption, not a business.
It's a great idea, especially for people that have the means to accommodate them, and are perhaps beginners in homesteading or animal husbandry.
A lot of people commenting here seem to be upset that it isn't just a machine they can park on their counter that shoots out free milk from thin air. It's an animal, you still need to take care of it, but it's more manageable than having a heard of fucking cattle stampeding through your yard.
Goats are another great option. Not as hardy and have a big learning curve, but the milk is delicious when fresh and clean, and they're naturally family-sized.
Goats might be more rambunctious, noisier, and more active. Not sure.
Maybe you know.
But yes to goats, sure.
Any animal has to be just what the family needs, tolerates, enjoys, relates to, has room for, has time for. That will vary a lot. We should look at everything. It's very personal. Every species has a personality. That has to be congenial to its keepers.
They're definitely more energetic than cows. They're browsers, and can eat a wide range of trees, shrubs, and other plants not palatable to other ruminants, but they are weaker than cows against mold and listeria. Big ones are counter-intuitavely easier to fence in than little ones. Some breeds are noisy (Nubians scream), while others are quiet. A good dairy doe can keep up lactation for 2 years, but you'll never get a day off. Still doable for a homestead if you do once a day milking, you just won't get as much. Cocci, barberpole worms, and mineral deficiencies are common struggles with goats, but they're great animals. All the best features of a dog and a cow all rolled into one.
Wasn't my point. Point was that these small cows can be production animals. Just because they're tiny doesn't mean they're necessarily pets.
Further, every rancher worth a shit is fond of his production animals on some level. And that's a big difference between industrial-scale production and (for lack of a better description) family farm production.
Not that production animals are pets. But they're more than meat factories and dollar value to real ranchers. At least the ones in my family. And the ones whom I know.
Nope. Never commercial ones. But two or three on a small hobby farm will produce milk and meat. And need not be pets. Small scale production. And that was more what I was getting at in my admittedly flip post.
My neighbor raises these have fun finding one that is functional for a price that isn’t retarded. She’s selling a bottle baby for 10,000 and has bought several heifers for 5,000 recently.
I think you’re doing right with the angus deal it sounds like you’re doing. I fully expect this mini fad to burn out and leave some people holding serious bags lol. I like seeing the minis out my window but I’m glad they’re not in my pasture.
I’m starting up a brahman herd to go with my commercial embryo recips, I think that plan has more legs.
Nope not at all, but I’m in south Texas and they do well down here and all along the gulf coast. The steers would get hammered but the replacement females are always in demand so the plan is to AI with sexed semen.
I’ve always wanted to see el Reno I have heard it’s quite the operation. I listen to the quotes from there on feeder flash in the mornings pretty regularly.
Right now what has been doing well for me is putting bucker embryos and club calf embryos in for other people and running a charolais for cleanup
Be careful about the minis. Some are bred crappy, and have huge udders and tiny legs. I had to take care of someone's mini Jersey for a week, and it had mini legs and a full size udder, with inches of clearance between the ground and her teats. A huge pain in the ass to milk thanks to it. Go for something small but still leggy.
Yes, a thorough study would be necessary. You would breed a cow, or buy one already giving milk, and you would have to know how long to milk it before letting it go dry, for its health.
Yes, somebody has to own or rent a bull.
You would discuss all this with the breeder where you bought the cows.
What, people don't like goats anymore? Give milk, give meat, will eat poison ivy, briar patches, almost any thing you set them too really. Great for brush and over growth clearing on your land.
I won't be repeating it. My wife and I sold our wedding and engagement rings to buy guns and gun training courses. We won't let them take our ethnic neighbors some day. We all need to train ourselves to protect our democracy before it's too late. It sucks that I wake up crying every day now because this is our world. I wasn't meant to be a soldier I was a cheese maker. I made fucking cheese. But now I'm a soldier thrown into some Hitler remake god it's awful.
My daughter had 2 dairy cows. She got rid of them. After a year she's decide to get another. It's insane how tied she is to the schedule of the cows milking. I mean the milk and butter is really good but it's a lot of work. Good for her I guess.
Honestly, I've been looking at buying 100 acres, and I thought about having some cattle anyways (not a lot, just enough for personal use. Leather, fertilizer, some milk, and some meat). This might actually be slightly more convenient and efficient for my purposes. At the very least, it would combat potential waste.
It's complicated. You would look into exactly what your needs were.
The miniatures won't give a LOT of anything. If you are a group of families, they might not be enough by themselves.
For just a few of you, they might be. You will have to feel your way to see what is worth the effort.
If you are new to country production at all, they might be a place to start.
As with gardening, read ten times before doing one thing. Searches and searches and taking notes.
If you are talking about that much land, room to wander, you will need a guard dog and maybe more than one dog. The linked article says that. He can live outside in a warm and tight doghouse, but he has his needs too.
Yup. It's my first foray into cows, but I've dealt with horses and chickens so I know it's going to be work regardless. For the land, I doubt I'll clear all 100 acres. Very likely I'll clear about 30 acres. I'm only supporting at max 10 people and at minimum 3.
My plan is to couple this with quail and possibly chickens in addition to gardens of different produce (not my first foray into planting/growing. I plan to rotate crops between 4 or 5 tilled and weeded plots. I haven't decided exactly how big I want to make them yet)
Most of the land I'm looking at has either natural creeks/rivers running through it or a man made but naturally fed pond (anywhere from an acre to 5 acres of state stocked pond since I'm a very avid fisherman).
I want to keep as much of the land as possible wooded for hunting deer and turkey and potentially plastic bottle bee keeping.
https://youtu.be/9ItlOFLTUAs
Additionally, my eventual goal is to build a water wheel for electricity supplemented by solar which is irrelevant to the topic of raising cows, but helpful for taking care of them.
If you do clear, leave uncleared corridors between cleared parts. You might look into permaculture and permaforests and food forests. That's midway between natural and cultivated.
You might like a gravity-fed water supply for your house.
Not a problem; I don't drink milk. I quit when my mother stopped breast feeding me. There are a lot of vegetable sources for calcium so milk is not a dietary requirement.
As for meat, we eat mostly deer and pork. I kill both.
On another note, I had a friend in Florida who bought several small cows and his daughters named each one of them and turned them into pets. So he's not going to kill and eat any of them so long as his daughters are around.
Valuable comment.
This might be for a family that didn't want lots of milk daily, just for personal use. But yes, you have to take care of any animal properly. Thanks for posting.
Stop trying to milk him and you'll get along better
Left...
Kek
I'm a bull and I've been milked plenty of times! Moo
Lindsey Graham has entered the chat
Big Mike has also entered the chat. And he got both breasts and nuts to milk from..
But that's the type of milk that they secretly feed the Soyboy customers of Starbucks!
You milk bulls with your mouth all the time
Oh i wouldn't know how do to that, thanks for the tip I guess but I'll pass
Pro-tip regarding the bulls: they get testy when you try to milk them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLF725CX4mM
Appropriate username
The problem with mini cows is that they are quite a bit more expensive than regular cows. We're wanting to get Dexters, which are naturally small, and can be used for beef, milk, or as oxen.
OH.
Yes, there are miniature jersey cows, it seems.
The idea would be just for family milk needs.
A miniature Jersey sounds way better than a cow you have to brush. Jerseys are supposed to be really good eating too.
Imagine having to listen to that Jersey accent all day.... no thank you... I'd rather listen to nickleback
Idk wut you mean.
ETA: thanks Bro, I appreciate it.
I’d bet they’d make better quality milk than a dairy cow. Compare the milk protein and fat between an Angus and a Holstein. The milk from a dairy cow actually has less fat and protein.
Beef cows aren’t used for milk because they don’t put out the volume and would lose insane amounts of money at a dairy.
I have nipples Greg, can I be milked?
Actually, with the right protocols, over time, since men do actually have mammary glands, it is possible.
I apologize that you can't unlearn.
https://youtu.be/FXI21S4ZWJU
The key is that it doesn't need to be every single family that has them. one family does milk, one family does crops, so on and so forth
That's the only way to really make it so all of the milk gets used and make all of the work worth it.
My thought was that the miniature cow might serve as a mid-point between no cow at all, and doing dairy for real.
For people with a little land, but who are still calling it "my lawn" instead of "my meadow" or "my pasture."
I had a teacher who had a dairy farm (along with her siblings) that we visited on fieldtrips. I had no idea the work involved. It starts before the sun goes up and ends after the sun goes down.
Beef cows on the other hand are much easier. That is a game of feeding and breeding and selling. Still a massive amount of work.
Can confirm. Four generations of family are dairy farming in PA. Spent my summers there growing up and holy fuck dairy cows were 24/7 before normies even knew of such a thing. Also, fat free milk is fake and gay.
Are you a biologist?
Yeah I guess you are
What if the animal walks around all cow-like but only produces bullshit?
Well, it'd probably be offered a job in DC I guess.
That's where the chocolate milk comes from.
Careful! Transbovine
Someone missed the joke?
yes it is and I truly thank the farmers in this world. thank you, farmers. I love you. I admire you. I respect you. I will do anything I can to help you. Just ask.
No, but it’s still a way to part a fool and their money.
Raised mini pigs for a few years (scientific purposes). There are mini pigs. Anyone who says otherwise is just being lied to by the internet. Granted, you can get taken by someone selling a Yucatan piglet, but there are legitimately pigs in the 45-65 pound range full grown.
They're just potbellied pigs that have been selectively bred (like dogs) to be super small... relatively.... But they ARE small.
That said, everything ELSE about mini pigs is a complete lie. They shit everywhere, are very difficult to train, consume much more food/lb than their true sized counterparts, bite like devils and they can still squeal loud enough to shatter glass.
Don't know.
Offered for the consideration of the community.
It's a beast. You wouldn't get one before reading thoroughly about it, whatever the internet has to offer, including blogs and videos. There are many kinds and breeds. You would research which kind might be good for you.
You need a yard but I haven't figured out yet how big it has to be, per cow.
Once, every family had a Family Cow.
It's not unprecedented but yes you have to know what you are doing.
For full sized cows, the recommendation I have seen is 2 acres per cow. I wouldn't want to try the mini breeds with less than an acre of dedicated fenced grazing area with full sun for maximum grass growth.
sister's full size cows are pets. one is about 25 yrs old and her pshyco 'baby' attack cow -inbred and the mother was already pregnant when given to her- is almost as old and still nurses. had 2 more - a male that died of old age, the other is a big baby that loves people and petting. takes a LOT to feed them, even tho they have a pretty big pasture. hay and sweet feed, vitamins. plus they need nail/horn trims and sometimes founder or get lame, and that takes a lot of bute.
still, wouldn't mind having a mini as a pet.
25 years old? What breed?
ETA: If you would quit feeding them so much grain they wouldn’t founder.
she told me a long time ago and i can't remember which for sure. brown with white face, i think it was hereford. she got angel when she was pregnant and she was given to her because the bull was related and they didn't want inbreds. the other cow was born in 1997 and given as a calf, so i got it wrong, emily's the 25 yr old, the one that had the calf is the oldest by about 2 yrs. they're all old for cows. emily has few teeth and can't digest well so requires chaffehay. the things we do, the money we spend for our pets. they're worth it.
A Hereford would fit that description. I guess they could live to 25 yo if they were pampered. That’s pretty amazing. Most farmers sell the mommas at about 10 yo.
Cows do make great pets if you have the space. My son has one he’s fond of. She runs over to him every time she sees him. She wants food but is almost as happy with being pet(petted?).
that's the way emily is, she sees somebody and waddles to the fence for petting and treats. bad thing now is, there are so few vets that come out when needed anymore. sis has to do it all now. but she does have friends with backhoes so when they die of old age all she has to do is call.
It sure puts a smile on your face.
Encourage her to have them put down when it’s time instead of letting them die of old age. Eventually the cows will not be able to absorb enough nutrients. They will not be able to get up one day and will suffer. It’s not pretty.
she did that a few years ago and it was a nightmare. she had someone come out to shoot him and they hit him right between the eyes and he wouldn't go down, took several tries and that was more awful than him just dying on his own. terrible death. would have had a vet use euthanasia but they won't come out anymore.
The shooter didn’t know what he was doing. I’ve had to put them down a few times and it never took more than one shot. My vet even uses a 22 mag to put them down. It’s the cheapest and easiest way and is very humane if done right.
You have to imagine an X between the eyes and ears. Hit the middle of the X and angle the round into the spinal cord. It’s instant. You need to know what you’re doing though.
If a cow was shot between the eyes there’s a good chance the central nervous system wasn’t even hit. It sounds a horrible experience.
A cow has a huge head and tiny brain. It is harder to aim through something then clean line of sight. OKRancher has good advice, but I can imagine it isn't hard to miss. Thick skull could redirect the bullet too.
Nice.
The miniatures take a lot less food, produce less poop, need smaller shelter, and less of everything. BUT they of course need care, brushing, regular milking on a schedule and on and on.
The minis will give both milk and meat. Done right.
And they are trainable.
It's a whole project, because it is a beast with needs and behaviors.
My thought was for milk for family food. Private consumption, not a business.
that poop grows nice gardens.
It's a great idea, especially for people that have the means to accommodate them, and are perhaps beginners in homesteading or animal husbandry.
A lot of people commenting here seem to be upset that it isn't just a machine they can park on their counter that shoots out free milk from thin air. It's an animal, you still need to take care of it, but it's more manageable than having a heard of fucking cattle stampeding through your yard.
This is udderly ridiculous.
Goats are another great option. Not as hardy and have a big learning curve, but the milk is delicious when fresh and clean, and they're naturally family-sized.
Goats sound like someone murdering a baby, every 30 seconds
Are you sure you want one?
You could always send the goat to Dr. Fauci to have its vocal cords removed. So there's that option.
Yes.
Goats might be more rambunctious, noisier, and more active. Not sure.
Maybe you know.
But yes to goats, sure.
Any animal has to be just what the family needs, tolerates, enjoys, relates to, has room for, has time for. That will vary a lot. We should look at everything. It's very personal. Every species has a personality. That has to be congenial to its keepers.
Goats jump over the fence, cows go through it.
They're definitely more energetic than cows. They're browsers, and can eat a wide range of trees, shrubs, and other plants not palatable to other ruminants, but they are weaker than cows against mold and listeria. Big ones are counter-intuitavely easier to fence in than little ones. Some breeds are noisy (Nubians scream), while others are quiet. A good dairy doe can keep up lactation for 2 years, but you'll never get a day off. Still doable for a homestead if you do once a day milking, you just won't get as much. Cocci, barberpole worms, and mineral deficiencies are common struggles with goats, but they're great animals. All the best features of a dog and a cow all rolled into one.
You can eat them too, but personally I don't prefer it. I found it kinda...stringy? A little greasy too. But definitely would be good in a pinch.
but they get into/on top of everything and eat destructively
OMG how cute is that
Yeah, we don't eat our pets.
Pets are pets until you're hungry, simple as.
People might come to this realization soon enough with the way things are headed.
Wanna know how I know you're a few steps removed from food production?
I don’t eat my pets either.
Wasn't my point. Point was that these small cows can be production animals. Just because they're tiny doesn't mean they're necessarily pets.
Further, every rancher worth a shit is fond of his production animals on some level. And that's a big difference between industrial-scale production and (for lack of a better description) family farm production.
Not that production animals are pets. But they're more than meat factories and dollar value to real ranchers. At least the ones in my family. And the ones whom I know.
These little things will never be commercial production animals. It’s not efficient enough.
And yes, every rancher worth a shit cares about his livestock for reasons other than money. They still taste good.
Nope. Never commercial ones. But two or three on a small hobby farm will produce milk and meat. And need not be pets. Small scale production. And that was more what I was getting at in my admittedly flip post.
Gotcha. That is a niche these would fill.
But other people's pets...
Maybe you should reconsider your choice in pets, then.
That's fucking adorable
Isn't that what they make White Castles out of?
My neighbor raises these have fun finding one that is functional for a price that isn’t retarded. She’s selling a bottle baby for 10,000 and has bought several heifers for 5,000 recently.
I’m in the wrong business.
I think you’re doing right with the angus deal it sounds like you’re doing. I fully expect this mini fad to burn out and leave some people holding serious bags lol. I like seeing the minis out my window but I’m glad they’re not in my pasture.
I’m starting up a brahman herd to go with my commercial embryo recips, I think that plan has more legs.
I’m not sure where you live but Bramah don’t sell well in El Reno.
Nope not at all, but I’m in south Texas and they do well down here and all along the gulf coast. The steers would get hammered but the replacement females are always in demand so the plan is to AI with sexed semen.
I’ve always wanted to see el Reno I have heard it’s quite the operation. I listen to the quotes from there on feeder flash in the mornings pretty regularly.
Right now what has been doing well for me is putting bucker embryos and club calf embryos in for other people and running a charolais for cleanup
I’m a small town fucker but I’ve been around. El Reno is the best I’ve seen. I normally place my fair price at a nickle below El Reno.
Sell what sells good. I’ve never sold one that is pure angus and I doubt I will any time soon.
Gotcha. Seems like the market should pick up by next year for just about everything with the way the cow numbers have shrunk. Best of luck to you.
I think so too. Inflation’s a bitch but I actually produce something so it won’t affect me so much.
Good luck.
It should be way higher than it is. I can make more selling it to my neighbors and they get it cheaper than the grocery store.
Right?
Little tiny hamburgers!
Sliders.
Meh, still holding out for one of those 12" giraffes.
Oh so cute. I love them.
Be careful about the minis. Some are bred crappy, and have huge udders and tiny legs. I had to take care of someone's mini Jersey for a week, and it had mini legs and a full size udder, with inches of clearance between the ground and her teats. A huge pain in the ass to milk thanks to it. Go for something small but still leggy.
Too cute to eat.
...but if I must...
Lol I wouldn’t immediately follow “they give meat too” with “good pet”.
My dogs are pets, but I would never eat them. If they were my pet, it’ll only be milk.
Yeah the “pet” and “meat” aspects of an animal are mutually exclusive for me….
Good pet until you're hungry?
You do know they have to breed the cows for them to keep producing milk, yes?
Yes, a thorough study would be necessary. You would breed a cow, or buy one already giving milk, and you would have to know how long to milk it before letting it go dry, for its health.
Yes, somebody has to own or rent a bull.
You would discuss all this with the breeder where you bought the cows.
How big is the ribeye?
Small eye.
Seriously, don't know. This is smallsville. Small everything.
These are the cutest cows EVER! I want two.
You need to milk them. Twice a day. Seven days a week. That's work too.
How do they compare with dairy goats?
Ooh. No idea.
You would read up on both.
Maybe someone here can do that comparison.
Yeah, but not everybody has the ability to sense them, let alone see them daily...
Oh, you meant dairy goats.
What, people don't like goats anymore? Give milk, give meat, will eat poison ivy, briar patches, almost any thing you set them too really. Great for brush and over growth clearing on your land.
Oh people like goats.
People keep species of animals that are pleasing to them, because they have to interact with them so much.
The different species have different activity levels and train-ability levels. Different personalities.
It is a personal preference.
Look at those little freaks! ;)
I could not eat those. They are like cowdoggos. They would be my little lawn mowing frens
I don't milk deer, but they taste good and I don't have to feed them, technically. Acorns, my own private herd of freezers. But alas, no milk.
Ah. Even better.
If you really want milk, you can keep a mini cow or two too.
Don't tempt me! What will the dogs think?
The dogs are a species that will protect your livestock. In theory.
Ok I can't own 2 cows where I live but I just want to say they are absolutely adorable
I was a cheese maker.
I won't be repeating it. My wife and I sold our wedding and engagement rings to buy guns and gun training courses. We won't let them take our ethnic neighbors some day. We all need to train ourselves to protect our democracy before it's too late. It sucks that I wake up crying every day now because this is our world. I wasn't meant to be a soldier I was a cheese maker. I made fucking cheese. But now I'm a soldier thrown into some Hitler remake god it's awful.
Cute as fuck
You forgot the lolz, these cows produce excessive lolz
Just get a Jersey or Shorthorn. Meat and milk and not a pet that requires brushing. I’ve milked Angus many times as well. Very sweet, rich milk.
https://youtu.be/2nk8-MqnHlw
Cows Around Corb Lund
Ah! Yes!!
https://rurallivingtoday.com/livestock/miniature-cattle-breeds-small-farm/
How do they compare logistically with milk sheep or goats?
Don't know. There was some discussion upthread about comparing them to goats. I don't know about milk sheep.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=milk+sheep+or+goats+or+miniature+cow%3F
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Goat+milk+vs+sheep+milk&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAiaOv-ez3AhVwUd8KHebPAtQQ1QJ6BAguEAE&biw=1333&bih=646&dpr=1.2
You will be living with these beasts. The species's personality and activity level should be pleasing to you. This is very personal.
My daughter had 2 dairy cows. She got rid of them. After a year she's decide to get another. It's insane how tied she is to the schedule of the cows milking. I mean the milk and butter is really good but it's a lot of work. Good for her I guess.
Is there any break time where you can go on vacation, i.e. make sure they're not pregnant or recently had birth and you're good to go, I assume?
That pair have faces like ewoks.
Oh they are cute!
I mean they give meat but once you get it they’re gone…
Honestly, I've been looking at buying 100 acres, and I thought about having some cattle anyways (not a lot, just enough for personal use. Leather, fertilizer, some milk, and some meat). This might actually be slightly more convenient and efficient for my purposes. At the very least, it would combat potential waste.
It's complicated. You would look into exactly what your needs were.
The miniatures won't give a LOT of anything. If you are a group of families, they might not be enough by themselves.
For just a few of you, they might be. You will have to feel your way to see what is worth the effort.
If you are new to country production at all, they might be a place to start.
As with gardening, read ten times before doing one thing. Searches and searches and taking notes.
If you are talking about that much land, room to wander, you will need a guard dog and maybe more than one dog. The linked article says that. He can live outside in a warm and tight doghouse, but he has his needs too.
If it's alive, it takes work.
But if you like the work, it's life.
Yup. It's my first foray into cows, but I've dealt with horses and chickens so I know it's going to be work regardless. For the land, I doubt I'll clear all 100 acres. Very likely I'll clear about 30 acres. I'm only supporting at max 10 people and at minimum 3.
My plan is to couple this with quail and possibly chickens in addition to gardens of different produce (not my first foray into planting/growing. I plan to rotate crops between 4 or 5 tilled and weeded plots. I haven't decided exactly how big I want to make them yet)
Most of the land I'm looking at has either natural creeks/rivers running through it or a man made but naturally fed pond (anywhere from an acre to 5 acres of state stocked pond since I'm a very avid fisherman).
I want to keep as much of the land as possible wooded for hunting deer and turkey and potentially plastic bottle bee keeping. https://youtu.be/9ItlOFLTUAs
Additionally, my eventual goal is to build a water wheel for electricity supplemented by solar which is irrelevant to the topic of raising cows, but helpful for taking care of them.
If you do clear, leave uncleared corridors between cleared parts. You might look into permaculture and permaforests and food forests. That's midway between natural and cultivated.
You might like a gravity-fed water supply for your house.
That video you link to about clear plastic bottle bee-keeping is interesting.
Yup. I watch a lot of that guy's videos. He does a lot with beekeeping and whatnot.
Sounds great.
Funny looking lol
Not a problem; I don't drink milk. I quit when my mother stopped breast feeding me. There are a lot of vegetable sources for calcium so milk is not a dietary requirement.
As for meat, we eat mostly deer and pork. I kill both.
On another note, I had a friend in Florida who bought several small cows and his daughters named each one of them and turned them into pets. So he's not going to kill and eat any of them so long as his daughters are around.
Wasn't this Fidel Castro's dream? Fucking weird.
What are the pros and cons compared to goats?
(INSERT TALIBAN JOKE HERE.)
https://agronomag.com/miniature-cows/
https://totallythebomb.com/fluffy-miniature-cows