Made it to 100 cows milking, 120 cows total!

Just realized today that I had to update my blog page...we no longer have 100 cows, but have increased our herd to 120 cows over the past year! This growth has come from the addition of fresh heifers and just doing a good job making sure that our older cows live long, full, happy lives. We are hoping to plateau at about 120 cows milking, and about 140-150 cows total (milking and dry cows) in the next couple years and stay there for awhile. Any more additional cows will be sent to other dairy farmers that will provide them good homes as well. We like the idea of having a full barn....but an over-full barn can be detrimental to the cows-therefore we will have to make sure we can maintain our size "comfortably" for all animals.

We are so excited about this achievement! When we started farming almost 5 years ago, we had about 70 cows. In the past 4+ years we have added 50 cows without buying a single cow-all home raised heifers! This is quite an feat, if you know anything about the dairy industry-and we are super proud to have done it! Needless to say, we love our cows and love having more of them!

WI Dairy Continues Growth despite Low Milk Prices

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20090722/OSH0101/307220055

Check it out! A WI dairy wins its right to expand their farm. While I don't think 8000 cows would be a good fit for myself, I do think its great to see another farm expanding, making safe wholesome milk for consumers, while providing jobs and working to protect their environment.

At 12 jobs per cow....that's 96,000 jobs from one farm alone! HOLY! Now that's a Stimulus Package!