Help Me Choose a Breed

You were asking about Brown Swiss. They are very common around here in the big dairy herds as well as on smaller farms. They are almost as big as a Holstein and eat a lot, of course they can also put out a lot of milk.

Peg

Bubba I am in the East side of Tn. We are on the same type of size acreage you are but with chickens, pigs and cow. My hubby and BIL are experience milk cow people from up in PA where they were born and raised. We have clover in our pasture as well as oat grass plus some very good helpful herbs. Going cow per acre is 2 max if on land like ours and fed once a day. Now this was for beef mind you but it is the same for milk as they need more to make that milk. If you want milk you will be feeding more than pasture. That is a given in any milk breed be it cows or goats or sheep. Alfalfa hay is the norm to feed for milk animals. Grain is fed at milking time to keep them busy and give that boost in nutrients. I would get a good book on milking cows and read up on feeding the ins and outs to get around graining. Good luck.

__________________
Our farm site
http://www.bluemoonvalley.com/
Breeding Working farm dogs and
La Mancha Dairy Goats.