A family milk cow is an expensive animal to keep.
So far in this series we have concluded that a family milk cow will NOT BE CHEAPER to keep than what most families spend on groceries.
BUT… if you are a big spender on dairy… we discusses MANY WAYS that you can save money on your grocery bill with your milk cow.
Finally, lets cover some great ways you can earn CASH from your cow, and turn her into a profitable animal!
Like our last post, we’re going to start with the easiest ways to make money from your family milk cow, then progress to the more difficult ways to make Money from her.
Selling Manure
If you can find a market in your area for cow manure, you can sell it to people in your area for use in their gardens. If you are in a suburban area or closer to populated areas where people do not have their own livestock but do garden, it could be a profitable endeavor. However, in our very rural area, manure is often given away for free on Craigslist, so we have not yet been able to sell any.
Selling Calves
Another way to make money from your cows is by selling calves (and when I say easy, I mean easy as in not having to learn how to make cheese or some other skill, however, it can be emotionally challenging, especially if you have become attached to them.) You can sell them a day old, make sure they get their colostrum, and that there is an experienced buyer who is purchasing them, as the care of calves can be tricky.
We actually selling our most recent heifer calf, Freddy. If you are looking for a Guernsey calf, A2A2, that has been milk-fed and is still drinking from the bottle, almost four months old, Freddy will be for sale, just email me, aust@thisishomesteady.com to learn more!
Selling Cows and Bull
The next way you can actually earn some money is by selling some cows or bulls. When you are first starting out, you might not sell all your calves, like we did. Those calves grow up, and eventually you will have multiple cows. As your herd grows, you’ll decide, “I don’t want this one anymore, I want to grow more of these ones.” So you can start selling full grown dairy cows and bulls now.
You can make more money off selling a family milk cow than you can that same cow when she was a calf, but you also have to put more time into her. There’s more risk the longer you keep an animal. The bigger the chance that they’re gonna drop dead on you. You have to spend more to feed the animal. You have to train the animal. So while you can make more money, it’s not necessarily going to be more profitable in the long run, but it could be, especially if you have a really nice, well-trained family milk cow in high demand. Same with bulls. You’re not gonna be able to sell every bull that you have as a breeding specimen, but if you have a good one that’s in demand, you might get a pretty penny for him!
This is the bulk of the way that we’ve earned cash from our family milk cow. Selling calves, cows, and bulls. Over the years, we’ve made thousands of dollars doing this. We breed mini jerseys. They are a cow breed that’s in more demand so we get more when we sell them as calves or cows. Mini’s can be a nice option for a small homestead if you’re not getting very many calves every year, to have a cow of a higher value, where people are willing to spend more for the calf.
Total sales off of calves and cows over the six years that we’ve been selling calves and cows, we’ve made eight thousand dollars in sales. That means when you break it down, we’ve made about 25 dollars a week on average in cash selling calves, cows, and bulls combined. That’s how we have made our money, But there are still more ways, medium and hard, that you can earn money off your family milk cow.
Stud Service
If you have a bull who’s got wonderful genetics (or sometimes even if he’s the only bull in the neighborhood) you could use them as a stud to service the other neighbors cows. This is a little more on the medium side of difficulty because you’ll want to do some disease testing, you’ll want to have a place if they bring their cow to your house to keep them separate.
Selling Milk
The next way you can make money is by selling milk, which is medium to hard difficulty. We used to sell milk back at our Connecticut Homestead but we don’t anymore. So we reached out to those in the Homesteady Audience who do sell milk and got some great figures to give you an idea of what you could earn…
Rachel from Abundant Life Farm in Alaska found a way to make money off her cow with a herd share program. It’s illegal to sell raw milk in Alaska, but a herd share is legal. For $55, people can get a gallon of milk every week for a month. Rachel has four people in her herd share and earns $220 every month, which helps cover the expenses of feeding her cow.
Jamie from Three Little Goats lives in Arkansas and sells raw milk through farm pickup. She has 10 regular customers and a few other occasional customers. In just four months, she made $4,660 in milk sales.
Donna from Hazel Bell Farm in Florida sells raw milk as pet food and found customers through word of mouth and social media. She had to get a pet food license from the state, but it wasn’t hard. Her one family milk cow earns her enough money to pay for all her other animal feed, including the cow’s own feed. Donna made $6,000 from one family milk cow last year. She also has a heifer calf which she is training to become her next family milk cow.
These stories from the Homesteady audience show how profitable having a family milk cow can be!
Selling Beef
Now we’re going to the hard category of making a profit from your farm. Selling beef can be a good way to make money, but can be complicated. There will be a lot to juggle when you decide to sell beef. There is legal red tape, deliveries and storage to consider, and of course the butchering to figure out. Will you do your own butchering? Or work with a professional butcher? If you do figure it all out though, selling beef can be quite profitable!
Selling Semen
If you still have that really nice quality Bull on your farm you can always have his semen collected! This is complicated, so also in the hard category, but can be a great way to make money off a good bull. You do need to arrange to get that semen collected, there can be some health testing that you have to do for him, it’s one of those things that’s a little bit more work to figure out how to do.
Experiences
The last way that you can make some money from your family milk cow in the hard category, is what we’re going to call ‘experiences’. This can include social media or agrotourism on a farm. There’s a growing interest in homesteading and people are willing to take classes or watch videos, creating a business opportunity for you. Increase your earnings from your family milk cow by offering unique experiences.
A family milk cow can be an expensive animal to keep, but it also presents several ways to earn cash. These include selling manure, calves, cows or bulls, offering stud services and selling milk. The methods can range from easy to difficult and the amount of money made can depend on the breed of cow, genetics and market demand. With proper management and understanding of the market, a family milk cow can turn out to be a profitable investment.
So is it worth it? You can take one look at our field and know what we think…
Want to get your own family milk cow? We really think you should!
Until then, if you want to learn more about a family milk cow, become a Homesteady Pioneer and take our Family Milk Cow 101 Class!
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