Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings

Dairy farms require a lot of money and start-up capital to get started, much more than producing meat from cows and calves. Find out why you want this and how you will get into this business before starting a dairy farm.

If you are not the first to open the farm, but inherit it from your parents and grandparents, this article will only be an overview for you.

Steps

1. 1 Write a business plan. This is especially important for those starting from scratch. Find out more details on how to start a dairy farm. If you are opening a dairy farm for the first time, make sure you consider things like manure, livestock health care, feed rations, selection schedules for each cow, calf birth, human resources (you may need to hire people to help you) , caring for calves, milking cows, harvesting, etc. All of this must be planned before moving on to the next stage.
2. 2 Capital. If you are looking for a farm that already has the necessary capital (buildings, equipment, machinery), then you only need to make sure that it has adequate sterile conditions for storing and pasteurizing milk, cowsheds, pens, manure supply and storage areas, milking hall, and enough land to grow feed for your cows.
   • If you are buying a piece of land, then you need to build buildings. Make sure you build silos, barns to hold manure lagoons or backwaters, paddocks, cow milking racks (usually a dairy parlor), and an area where you can walk your cows. You will also need a central section and a section where you can keep the calves that were taken from the cows so that they can bottle feed and the cows can produce milk.
     • Make sure the size of the buildings matches the size of the herd you want to start with, but also the maximum size you want to end up with.
3. 3 Find a company that you can sell milk to. You may also have to prepare the documents that you have to send to the state, among everything else. Canada must have a quota of one hundred cows to qualify as a dairy farm. (Quota means the minimum number of animals allowed to start and produce dairy products).
4. 4 Buy cows. Holstein breeds are the best breeds for the best milk production per day. Make sure they are healthy, good breeders with good udders, disease free and docile. You can purchase Jerseys and / or Brown Swiss breeds in addition to your daily performance requirement. ...

Tips

• A healthy herd is essential for dairy production. Dairy cows can easily get sick, and are more prone to leg and udder injuries than meat cows, and are also prone to milk fever and postpartum ketosis. In order to have a healthy dairy herd, health regulations must be strictly followed.
• Set up a breeding / calving / weaning schedule differently than for cattle, but more or less similar to it.
  • You need cows to calve 365 days a year to maintain a constant supply of milk sold by producers.
• Dairy cows require a higher quality feed than beef cattle, and as a result, eat more so that they can meet their bodily needs for milk production. This requires a good feed ration.
• Allow the calves to drink milk for at least a month to keep them energized.
• Milk manure stinks. Don't let it build up in sheds. There is a system in which manure can be easily moved from a barn to lagoons to minimize the odor from ammonia produced in urine and feces.
• Make sure you have good experience so that your cows are as comfortable as possible while milking.

Warnings

• Stay away from dairy bulls if possible. They are very dangerous, more dangerous than bulls for meat. That is why I.O. (artificial insemination) is a necessity for dairy farms, as it is not as dangerous as having a dairy bull next to you. In vitro fertilization technologies are a good option for breeding cows.
• Don't start a business with several thousand dollars in your bank account. You could also breed beef cows rather than dairy cows as dairy farms require more money to start a business.
• Don't start a business thinking it will be easy. This is wrong. You will be busy from sunrise to sunset every day, doing everything from milking cows to paperwork with taxes. Additional workforce can help you with tedious day-to-day work, but even with employees, you will have to supervise them to see how they are doing and what they are doing.