A BACKYARD DAIRY COW:part I

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By way of contrast, the Ayrshire breed originated in Scotland, where herds often had to graze over a considerable acreage to get enough food. As a result, Ayrshires are usually large, hardy animals.

The Holstein breed, on the other hand, was developed-by the Dutch—on very fertile soil with lush grasses. With plenty of feed available to be converted to milk, Holsteins were—as a rule-large-volume producers.

In the early days of the Brown Swiss, Switzerland's farmers needed triple-purpose critters: beasts that could provide meat, milk, and draft capability. The Brown Swiss, then, is typically a large, thick-muscled animal that also gives a goodly volume of milk.

The dual-purpose breeds are the results of efforts to reach a compromise between meat and milk production, making such animals typically meatier than the other dairy critters. But—over a year's time—such cows generally won't give as much milk as will those that have no other "job".

IV. RECOGNIZE YOUR MARKET

Let's assume you've chosen a goodlooking animal that appears to be just waiting to turn her spigots on ... how much milk should you expect her to give? Well, dairy—people figure that they need to get 9,000 to 10,000 pounds of milk-per cow-in a tenmonth lactation period in order to break even . . . and you shouldn't settle for less. That works out to about 30 to 34 pounds (or about four gallons) a day, for 305 days a year. Now almost live tons of milk is a lot for most families to gulp down. (In addition, every morning there'll be a pound or so of cream that you can ladle off the top of the milk jar.)

But even if you can't find several friends to share in your white-liquid assets, the excess milk can be used as a highly nutritious diet supplement for other critters. For example, ten pounds of milk will be a bellyful for a calf. In fact, depending on how much milk the momma gives, you'll likely be able to feed two or three calves and still have enough left over for your table. What's more, the calves should be weaned when they reach 2-1/2 to 3 months of age . . . so a family could conceivably have its fill of milk and raise three batches of young animals each year, for a total of six to nine calves annually!

And where—you might ask—would the aspiring cattleperson get such extra babies? Well, it's often possible to find dairy farm owners who don't want to fool with bull calves, and will sell them at reasonable prices. (Such men and women used to give them away, but a live calf on the ground is worth $75 to $100 at today's prices.) The extra calves that you raise can then be sold as weanlings, and you can pocket the money ... or you could turn the beasts into the back 40 to become meat for your table.

Remember, too, that even if you choose not to feed "adopted" youngsters, you'll probably have one calf each year that'll eventually end up in the freezer. And don't let anyone tell you that dairy steaks aren't tasty ... they're delicious! There just aren't quite as many of them per animal as there are on beef steers. However, if you want your cow's offspring to be a little meatier, you can simply breed momma to a beef bull every year (until it's time to replace her with one of her daughters), and she'll give you a steakmaking, beef/dairycross calf whose fast growth and tasty meat may amaze you.

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