Engineer -> Farmer, CA -> TN, thoughts welcome

[yumbrad]

Wow, good to know .. I grew up pretty near an active rail line, but not that active, and not that near!

That's a very insightful question, and points out where I need to do some concrete calculations. It depends on the breed, but given milk production of, say, 12000 gal a year per cow, and the thought that I'd experiment with different products, but am not at all looking to sell pasteurized wholesale... 20 would be a lot! Even 10 would be a lot. But I have been hoping for at least 100 acres, so a smaller place (like this at 40 acres) I would want close in to do better direct marketing and interaction (i.e. eat ice cream at the farm). Unfortunately, that also then complicates things with the patchwork of state-specific food production/sale regulations.

Actually, more important than calculations, I need to get a better feel for similar operations - non wholesale ones that produce some assortment of raw milk/cream/butter/cheese/yogurt/kefir/icecream etc. I'd like to meet someone running such a small dairy. My knowledge thusfar is mostly from books, and mostly general at that - Gene Logsdon, John Seymour, Joel Salatin... But I don't have lots of farmers in my church here like I did growing up, though one of my coworkers and his wife are trying to do a small produce farm with the wife as main manager & labor . He commutes a couple hours in in order to do so, and he's got just a few acres.

Thank you for the thoughts. Each one refines my understanding of the area a bit more. And good to hear someone use the term "bottom land" - almost no one I interact with here in Silicon Valley would know what that even means ...

[jabogitlu]

If you get excited about bottom land, upstate (TN) might be the place for you! I think looking in Washington County (Telford, Limestone, Jonesborough, Fall Branch) or south/eastern Greene County (Camp Creek, Afton, Chuckey, Rheatown, Newmansville) is a good idea as well, recommended by Jim. I was raised on a farm on the 107 Highway. Actually, my dad just sold out his 120-cow dairy. Too bad ya'll weren't moving a couple months ago, we could have set you up with a herd. lol.