Diversifying and Controlling Your Herd Size

We’re all farmers (or want-to-be farmers) around here, so I know we all can successful raise a herd of cows. But today we're going to get into the details of how we control our cow herd size and add some extra value to our farm profits by intentional genetic breeding.

We’re known most for our Jersey herd since we’re a dairy farm! We also love our Jerseys for their small stature and ease of handling once-a-day milking (you can read all about our OAD milking journey here). Our Jerseys make a rich, high butterfat milk that’s delicious and has a stunning creamline our customers love. They’re the perfect fit for our Microdairy, really. But we’re only on 20 acres, and since we’re a dairy herd, we grow quickly. Enter our best breeding decision yet: intermittent black Angus breeding. (We chose black Angus simply because our breeder had only those beef genetics, but any beef breed would do).

Instead of raising a herd too large for our farm, we decided early on that we would calve only the Jerseys each year we needed for herd development and breed the rest for beef. In the first two years, we mostly sold them as calves to auction or local farmers, as beef prices post-COVID neared record highs. This was such a simple way to add more financial value to our farm doing what we already needed: breeding back our dairy cows!

The best benefits are starting to show now, though, as we’ve raised two Angus/Jersey cross heifers now ready to be bred themselves: this allows us to continue the beef genetics for superior quality as a cow/calf beef side operation. And bonus: we hope to use these Jersey cross/Angus heifers to help feed some of our new calves if need be, too. Since we’ve developed a community of customers who like and value our dairy products, we’ve been able to serve them even more by offering a high-quality beef from farmers they already know, like and trust. This is huge in the world of sales: your customers will buy from you more frequently and at higher quantity if they know, like and trust you. Plus, they’ll tell their friends and family, too! So once we gained their trust in the diary world, we knew they would love the option to purchase local beef from us, too! This past year, we were able to send an Angus/Jersey cross steer to a USDA butcher and sell individual cuts of beef at our little farm shoppe: not only did our customers LOVE this new production option, they bought an entire steer in less than two weeks! At PRIME prices. And they’ve called, emailed, texted and messaged us about how much they loved the beef and can’t wait for more!

Just in this past calendar year, we’ve added OVER an additional $12,000 profit from our little farm in beef sales, and that’s from one of our own cows and the purchase of another from a local farmer. And all because we chose to breed some calves as Angus instead of Jersey a few years back. We’re just getting started and will have more and more Angus ready for butcher in the next few years, with little to no additional effort on our dairy farm. This one little trick has given back so much: not only to our farm but to our farm customers, too. They love a chance to buy quality beef from farmers they already trust. And your customers will, too!