If you had 20 acres....

[chickenzoo]

I would have a whole herd of mini Zebu............... i only have a baby heifer (Hope) and a young bull ( Charmin) right now.

 

[Tinted]

I would go goat. Smaller and easier to manage if the need comes up, they are also highly intelligent an affectionate pets. Oh and they thrive on pasture or “All Stock” ($5.00 bag).

 

[LV426]

Why does no one ever think of having a herd of milk giraffes. I mean think about it, no more stooping down to milk, no bending over. 20 acres could easily support a herd of giraffes. Now if we could just get them to give milk. ;-)

 

[RAWR]

i want one of these

unicorn cow!!!

 

[LV426]

Quote:
Hrm, a Unicow could be dangerous. That's a long pointy stick there.

 

[DKMfan86]

If I had a farm, I would totally raise goats instead, but a large part of that plays into the fact that I was in 4H, I even showed them in fairs. (Is showed even a word, firefox spell checker, says it is.)

Also the only cow's milk, that I remember having was store bought, where as I've had actual farm raised goats milk, but I am not sure how relevant, this really is.

 

[poltroon]

Mother Earth News has an article on keeping a dairy cow in their latest issue.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/mode...joy-delicious-milk-cream-cheese-and-more.aspx

I think the toughest point is that the cow has to be milked on exactly the same schedule, either once or twice a day (depending upon if you let her keep her calf). It's a fair amount of work compared to driving to the corner store.

 

[farmerKEN]

Quote:
That's what keeps me from getting a goat or cow. If only they had cows that only needed to be milked once a week.

 

[protodon]

I say goats and sheep. Goats for drinking milk and sheep for cheese. They're easy to handle, have a lot of the same requirements and unlike cows, their poop just "disappears"

 

[greathorse]

Not sure why there seems to be a consensus that goats are more messy than cows. Cows create a lot more manure, eat a lot more and in general I would think would be more work to keep up with.

I used to have cows and I would raise calves on them, but if I wanted to milk her for myself I would keep the calves off her for a half day and milk her out. The calves of course by that time were eating hay and so forth as well. It worked out pretty good.