Yes, as in, miniature.
They exist, I promise.
(Miniature giraffes, sadly, do not.)
I’ve been doing my research and I’m pretty sure I would love nothing more than a miniature Jersey heifer calf. You guys — take a LOOK. At. This. Face.
(image credit: South Side Stables)
That is a real animal. It really is, and I want it. Bad.
But I don’t just want one because they are painfully cute and adorable in every possible way. I need little Bessie here to bring me some nourishment.
As you may already know, I live in a big, fat red state, as show here on the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund’s Raw Milk Nation map. That means that under no circumstances is it legal for anyone to sell real, unprocessed, unpasteurized milk. Not farm sales, not for pets, not herd shares, NOTHING. Literally your only hope of consuming healthy, raw milk is to squeeze it out of your own dairy animal. Which we have tried.
Milking mishaps
We briefly had a goat, bought a pregnant sheep, and neither ended up being fruitful milkers for us. Dorothy is probably the very worst dairy sheep we could have possibly gotten. Her little teaties are tiny, her udder, utterly pathetic, and until very recently the darn thing wouldn’t stand still long enough for you to even touch her, much less grab onto her nether-regions to squirt some milk into a bucket.
So Dorothy brought us a very adorable baby ram lamb, and somewhat of a trimming to the overgrown grass on the property, but not much else. It’s time to find a decent dairy animal.
Why tiny?
Miniature Jersey cows are an ideal family dairy animal for many reasons. They are actually not a sized-down version of their larger, conventional counterparts, but rather — their pint-size is actually characteristic of the original heritage breed.
Jersey cows have been bred larger since industrialization of the dairy industry began. Bigger cows = more milk. Jerseys used to produce 1-3 gallons of milk a day, and now? Those big ones are pumping out 8-10. Since most families would never be able to use up that much milk for themselves, the original mini Jersey is a much better choice. You’ll get usually no more than 2.5 gallons a day out of these little beauties. And, Jersey’s are known for their milk’s high butterfat content. Hel lo. Obviously a huge plus.
Mini cows also take up much less space. For a full-sized dairy cow, you ought to have at least a couple acres of land per animal. But with a mini, you only need about 1/2 an acre.
A well-bred mini will stand only about 36-40 inches in height. Their small stature makes them easier to handle and transport, and the Jersey in particular has a very calm and friendly demeanor. They’re even great with children!
A girl can dream…
So, did you notice the flower lei around that sweet little calf’s neck pictured up there? That’s because that beautiful face actually got shipped all the way out here to Hawaii!
There are only a handful of mini Jersey breeders in the country, and there are definitely none here in the islands. So, my only hope of getting one of these precious creatures is to fly one out from the mainland. As you can imagine, that’s not exactly cheap.
But my hunt continues. I’d love to maybe find a cheaper cross bred mini that doesn’t come with the standard price tag for the purebreds (about $2-3,000 a head) to ship out here, if we could actually afford it. Although, I’ll likely only find a young calf just weaned from its mother, which means I’d have to wait another year to breed her, and then another 9 months before she’d be in milk. That’s just way too long to wait, milkless.
So while I dream of a steady stream of luscious cream flowing from a gorgeous doe-eyed Emily-sized (I’m rather miniature myself) Jersey cow, I’m going to be on the lookout for a decent dairy goat in the meantime.
Have you heard of miniature cows before? Would you consider adding one to your homestead if you could?
[2nd image credit: florador on Flickr]
I so want one now! My hubs, however, thinks I`ve lost my mind. No beautiful mini-cow in my future. Or a goat, for that matter. Someday I will brainwash, I mean convince, my hubs of the benefits of good, old-fashioned foods.
My (almost) husband has thankfully been successfully, thoroughly, brainwashed. Perhaps I can be of assistance to yours! 😉
I would be delighted with a regular sized or mini on a once a day milking schedule. But I need more room. I would also need to resign myself to being home EVERY day at the same time. Not milking even for a day is very bad to the animal. Vacations would have to wait for the annual drying off period prior to them giving birth to the next baby bovine. So, yes, dh thinks I’ve lost my mind.
Definitely true that they’re a lot of work, especially without a calf at their side. If you hang onto the baby though, you only milk once a day and you can skip a milking or two. Or a whole week. So it’s best to get a dairy animal while she’s already pregnant, or breed her yourself, cause then you get to share milking duties with her little one. I would have to do it this way in order for it to work for me!
That’s awesome! This is the first I’m learning of miniature cows – and now I want one! My townhouse isn’t the best place for one, but now you’ve given me food for thought for when we move…
I want a miniature cow, too! Have you checked out the Dexter breed? They look pretty good!
This is gbreat! I had no idea. Luckily, I can get good raw milk where I live. And it is lucky, as I don’t have the space for even a mini, in my house in the city. But you never kniw what the future will bring!
So cute!! My hubby really supports my dream of having a little farm to sustain our own food needs. Unfortunatley, we still live in an apartment at the moment.. but I can’t wait until we can afford a house with an acre or two 🙂
Yeah, I need one of those.
LOL. So glad I’ve made another convert!
So cute! We considered mini Jerseys and Dexters for a while but then the reality of our limited budget whacked us upside our heads. So it’s back to goats for us. We’re getting a few Kinders this year. We’ve had other breeds in the past but we’re going with a new-to-us one this time around.
Cate, you don’t actually have to milk every day. As long as you keep babies on them, your milking schedule is fairly flexible.
Yeah, the minis are definitely a pretty significant investment, but in a few years’ time, after you’ve produced enough babies, they can potentially pay for themselves and then some. It makes my head spin to think of what I could sell them for here. Supply and demand!
Who knew the miniatures are actually the size Jersey cows are supposed to be?? This breed is news to me, and I definitely want one myself!! Sounds like a perfect fit for the homestead we will have one day (the ‘one day’ being the important part since we don’t even have a home right now, much less any land :-P)
Aw, I sure hope “one day” comes sooner rather than later! 🙂 Yeah isn’t that so surprising about the cows’ size? I was so glad to find that out though, cause at first glance they seem like they’ve been genetically…tampered with… or something.
OMG! I soooooo WANT ONE! I have been looking into cows myself! I hear they poo — A LOT, when you milk them, so I wonder if the poo factor would be less with a mini. 🙂 I am sooo looking into this! Thanks for the info!
Ive been wishing for the same. Try fouch farms in california.
We are also thinking of a mini for our homestead-to-be (our “when” depending on when the previous generation moves themselves out of said space! LOL!)…
If you have one shipped to you from afar, though, what do you do about breeding her?
Ooh, fun!! Haha, you’ll have to let me know how that goes!
Oh, and uh, shipped semen and a “date” with the vet is how we’d be breeding her. 😉
Very cute indeed, but someone needs to find me a house and some land before I even try to think about having a cow.
awww they’re so cute!
My wife would love to have one/two etc of these mini cows and I’m open to it. We could afford to buy a farm but don’t know anything about taking care of cows. We’re in Florida; what’s the best way to get on the learning curve/ place to buy a mini/ etc?
Holy crap. Cutest cow EVER! My husband is going to groan when I show him (yet another) adorable mini animal that I want.
We are actually on a waiting list here in Utah..to get our mini jersey…the waiting list was two years long! We should have ours by the spring of 2013! With our 8 kids we are figuring it will save us money and be SO MUCH healthier!! So I better get a move on it and find our little homestead for her to roam on……which means I need to find some more money…..which means I better go and get something done!
hanks for the laughs today!!
Oh, good grief!! I NEED one of these little beauties! I already sit around all day, pining for farm animals, and now knowing that these exist is almost too much for me. Next time we move, we’ll have to make room for Bessie, the tiny Jersey.
“Knowing that these is exist is almost too much for me.” LOL!! My thoughts exactly, when I discovered them. We WILL both get to join the tiny cow club someday, Ariana! We will. 🙂
A miniature cow has been on my want list for a while now… Maybe our neighbors would think it’s a dog and we wouldn’t have to purchase an acreage? 😛
Oh my, that is SO adorable and YES, YES, I’d love to have one too!! Unfortunately I don’t have acres or the right to own more than a cute small tortoise on my rented patio and two raised beds with vegetables…Ah, one day…I’ll live on a little farm…with my little cow..A person can only dream!
A tortoise, how cute! I’m still dreaming, too. We’ve moved since I wrote this, and I now live in a place where it would be much more feasible to get a mini cow if I had the acreage for one. We’re not quite there yet. But I’m hoping to at least get a veggie garden going, too!
I so want a mini moo moo cow! I’ve been hankering for a small farm for about 6 months now, and of course my husband thinks I’m coo-coo for cocoa puffs. I’ve always wanted a Jersey cow, because they are off the cuteness scale. I mean look at those adorable big brown eyes! They are so huge you could fall into them. So one day he thought he was teasing me and said the only way he would let me have a cow is if there were mini cows! Ha ha ha, the jokes on him! So if we ever get more than 2 acres of land, guess what I’m getting?! He he he = D
Okay…. I’m sold… we already raise cattle…. but they are not for milking… and I want to make cheese and butter… so…. Where do I GET ONE to start?
Maybe craigslist? Or just search for “miniature jersey” and the state you live in, maybe a farm’s website would pop up? Good luck!!