Found a good "Small Dairy Farming" link? Let Us Know!

Got Milk? smalldairy.com has resources you can use! Established in 1998 to assist small commercial dairies in finding information about on-farm and artisan processing, this site now also serves homesteaders and suburban kitchen cheesemakers and food-lovers seeking sources of wholesome dairy foods and the tools to produce them.

Small Farm Quarterly is a new Northeast magazine for farmers and farm families who value the quality of life that smaller farms provide.

PLANS [PDF Format}:
COVERED COMPOSTING SHED FOR DAIRY WASTES. 12' x 48'. and 300-COW FREESTALL & FEEDING FACILITY. 100' x 336' and 84-COW DAIRY HOUSING & CENTER DRIVE-THRU FEEDING FACILITY and 108-COW FREESTALL BARN. 52' x 120' and ENCLOSED CALF BARN WITH 80 ELEVATED STALLS. 22' x 96' WITH VENTILATION DETAILS and 120-COW DAIRY HOUSING AND FEEDING FACILITY. 96' x 156'.

The Small Dairy Resource Book This publication is a product of the Hometown Creamery Revival project, funded by the Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program of USDA. The Hometown Creamery Revival (HCR) arose in response to a growing interest in the United States in on-farm and small scale processing of dairy products and the lack of a unified source of information on that subject. As part of the project, we have collected a library of materials and searched through trade magazines, libraries, old book sources, the World Wide Web and commercial printers for resources. We’ve asked farmers, processors, scholars and other interested people to recommend materials. As we searched, the possibilities grew enormous – there is a tremendous amount of information out there if you just know how to find it! Because of the ever-changing and nearly unlimited nature of the World Wide Web, we have listed in the Appendix a few of the most pertinent and stable of the sites we encountered, choosing instead to concentrate on books, videos and serial print publications in the main body of this work.

Opportunities for Success on Small Dairy Farms The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the challenges facing small dairy farmers in the U.S. market place are reviewed. Second, options are considered for improving the financial success of these dairy operations. The conclusion that is reached is that dairy farmers, particularly smaller operations, can be successful in the current market environment, if they make appropriate changes. That doesn’t mean that small dairy farm families will be able to defy market realities (i.e. economies of scale). Rather, we’ll review some of the changes that will be required of successful dairy farm businesses of the future.

Organic Dairy Farms in Wisconsin: A Summary Report Organic dairy farming in Wisconsin is experiencing rapid growth and capturing an increased share of the market. Although the organic dairy sector in Wisconsin is still relatively small, accounting for two percent of the state’s cows, Wisconsin is one of the nation’s top two producers of organic dairy products and home to the largest organic milk cooperative. The expectation of strong demand growth for organic milk products provides plenty of potential for continued expansion in organic dairy farming within the state. Yet, relatively little is known about how organic farms compare with other types of dairy operations in terms of the demographic characteristics of the farmers, size and structure of the farms, management practices and technologies utilized, their overall economic performance, and quality of life experiences.

Planning a Milking Center From Kansas State Univ, and in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format (158 Kb).

New Digester Opportunities Anaerobic digestion technology holds many benefits for Minnesota farms. It has the potential to reduce environmental problems associated with animal agriculture and provide economic benefits to farms and rural communities. It can reduce odor, pathogens, greenhouse gas emissions, costs for bedding by utilizing recycled solids and adds value by producing renewable energy which provides distribution generation of electricity.

Improving Mechanical Ventilation in Dairy Barns The purpose of this paper is to describe inexpensive methods to provide satisfactory exhaust ventilation in existing dairy barns. Only exhaust systems are discussed since ventilation systems that use a fan and duct to force air into a building (positive systems) are not recommended for winter ventilation in Minnesota.

Feeding Corn Gluten for Dairy Cows: Wet Corn Gluten Versus Wet Distillers Grains, G1588

What differences in milk yield and percents of solids nonfat, fat and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) might occur in two different diets for dairy cattle.

Dairy Farm - Grass Fed Cow Milk On a fairly regular basis, Grinning Planet throws cow pies at "industrial agriculture"—those massive, corporate farming operations—while singing the praises of small farms and sustainable, non-chemical agriculture. It all sounds good: who doesn't prefer the idea of varied, natural, lush fields to endless miles of genetically cartoon image of grass fed cow in a pasture engineered corn stalks, and who can't see that happy barnyard animals are better off than sad creatures trapped in cages, pens, and feed lots.

Opportunities for Success on Small Dairy Farms Revisited The objective of this paper is to offer advice to Veterinarians that service small dairy producers in the U.S. There are opportunities in today’s market place for dairy producers that want to remain small, but only if they follow a few basic business practices. These may include getting to an optimum size that will generate a sufficient family living while avoiding the problems associated with a “large farm,” limiting investments and debt, focusing on just milk and heifer production, achieving high levels of productivity per cow, and avoiding some of the “philosophical issues” that prevent small farms from achieving profitability. In fact, these rules apply not only to small dairy farms, but any business. Small dairy farms can take advantage of strategies used by their larger competitors in order to prosper in the years ahead.

Dairy Farmers Who Milk the Past  Like Missouri's Robert Shatto, many are finally thriving again by returning to glass bottles -- and the old-time qualities they conjure

A Grazing Strategy for Small Dairy Farms Agricultural Research Service scientists in Ohio are beginning a dairy grazing research and demonstration program to help family dairy farms both in Ohio and nationwide.

Small Diary Project The SDP defines a "small" commercial dairy farm as one which consists of a herd of not more than 50 dairy goats or the equivalent in fluid milk from lactating cows. The Project provides professional farmers who chose to operate at this scale access to knowledge and resources associated with more capital intensive enterprises.

DairyBiz -- Tech Talk -- Big Rewards in Small-Scale Dairy Processing Operators of small dairy farms (35 to 300 cows) know they can control more of the profits in their raw-milk product by directly marketing the finished products to consumers. Though FDA regulations and the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance remain the strictest codes worldwide confronting dairy farmers, they still allow for on-farm processing as an alternative to a raw milk-pricing situation. If done properly, this can prove an excellent value-added opportunity.

Down on the Dairy Farm For centuries, the sight of small, family farms has been a key component of the beauty of rural Pennsylvania. “If we lose all the small dairy farms, we would lose a piece of our heritage, a part of our culture,” says agricultural economist Jeff Hyde. “It would change the landscape of our state. Small, family farms are picturesque.”

NEWS FROM CORNELL’S SMALL FARMS PROGRAM The farm sits on 33 acres near the Susquehanna River and another 100 acres is available to rent nearby. The Johnson’s grow 30 acres of alfalfa for haylage, 40 acres of corn for silage, 60 acres of grass for dry hay, and 20 acres of oats for grain and straw bedding. They contract with Albert Ives who custom chops the corn and haylage. They have invested as little as possible in equipment.

Efficiency and Competitiveness of the Small New York Dairy Farm Many believe that small dairy farms cannot survive because costs of production per cwt of milk are thought to be higher than the cost of production per cwt of milk on larger farms. Raw summaries of dairy farm business records in New York are consistent in that smaller dairy farms do have higher average costs of production. However, 1999 data from a group of 314 New York dairy farms were used to model costs of production as frontier or best practice costs with a separate efficiency component accounting for use of projected best practices.

Profitability of Small Dairy Farms - Table of Contents The typical size of the small scale dairy farm is 40 hectares (100 acres). The 40 hectare owner/operator daffy farmer with above average management skills and a low level of debt is likely to be making a disposable cash surplus. This type of farmer is likely to survive in the medium term future. Interesting take on New Zealand farming.

Survey of Organic Feed Grain Supply in the Northeast Region

Cornell Small Farm Research & Education Resources

Revised Cost and Returns to Organic Dairy Farming in Maine and ...

Dairy Herd Management Magazine - Feature Articles (advocates larger farms)

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