ALL of the small time dairy farmers around here no longer milk cows. 30 years ago, there were at least 10 within 5 miles of where I live. It just became uneconomical.
By small time, I mean milking up to about 50 cows. The remaining few large dairies probably milk a couple hundred all the time.
And you are just as tied down with 5 cows as you are with lots more. You always have to be there. The old small dairies around here usually had multiple kids that helped with the constant work. No family vacations with everyone along, ever. And when the kids grew up and went away, they quit milking cows fairly soon.
When I was a kid in the 60's, we milked up to 5 cows by hand and sold raw, whole milk to many customers, who had to pick it up at our farm. We separated the remaining milk and sold the cream to a local creamery, feeding the skim milk to hogs. Selling raw milk and cream was legal then, at least the way we were doing it. I have been told that it is not now. That same creamery still exists, but when I asked if they still bought cream from farmers, they said they hadn't done that for about 20 years. So today, our little dairy operation would no longer have any LEGAL market for our products.
There is a whole lot more regulation today, and I would guess that much of that regulation is not favorable to the little guy.
You might want to try working on a dairy for a while to see how you like that life before you try going out on your own. It is my guess that you will decide that the return for the amount of work and investment it would take makes it not worth it. Good luck!
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