Most clients come to us with established farms. Any breed can be used to craft a profitable micro dairy.

However, we are always excited to work with the homesteaders who are fighting to carve space in their commmunities as the go-to local dairy.

That requires profitablility. And choosing the right breed can make your path to profitablity a faster one.

But you need to know what you are going to sell: Milk, Yogurt, Butter, or Cheese?

For example, you might choose a breed for it’s high cream levels. Now you can sell more butter and cheese.

On the downside of that, butter yields are often lower than expected, and require more equipment, time and cold storage space (I’ll give you exact numbers below). Those are all items that can bite into profitablity.

Unless you are ready for that commitment, you are better off choosing a breed that can create massive milk volume, and leaning solely into milk sales. Sell the top-3 (skim, 2% and whole). Butter and cream can come later.

(Pro tip: Yogurt is the best next-step after milk and often overlooked by American Micro Dairies).

(You aren’t alone in your desire to sell butter and cheese alongside your milk – our sales reps spend most of their day talking farmers into smaller, more sustainable (and more profitable!) startup versions).

Remeber: It’s not about the breed. It’s about who you are selling to, and what they are willing to pay.

• Selling on the commodity market, will give you 25-30% of retail value for the milk.
• Selling direct to consumers will let you charge a premium, often providing 400% more on each gallon of milk compared to selling on the commodity market. Community Supported Agriculture Shares (CSA Shares) is how most of our clients are sustaining their farms.

Direct to consumer sales is proving to be the saving grace for many struggling dairy farms. However, when you are selling to consumers, the breed profitability equation changes.

The Best Dairy Breeds By Milk Yield

In this chart, we look at the different breeds, the acreage needed and the milk produced.

Ultimately, you want a cow with a high feed efficiency. What’s the least you can feed them for the most milk.

Feed efficiency and milk quality pushes most artisanal farmers towards the Jersey over the Holstein. We also sell a lot to farmers with Gurnseys as they occupy the middle ground between Jersey’s richness and Holstein volume.

One of our clients is a Guernsey farm that has turned their dairy processing plant into a tourist destination. They also run a profitable breeding program, further supplementing the farm.

How Dairy Cows Affect Butterfat and Milkfat (And why it matters)

Butterfat is the foundation of the most expensive dairy products: Butter and Cheese.

A gallon of Jersey Milk will produce about 1.25 pounds of Cheese, while a gallon of Holstein milk will yield about 0.9 pounds of cheese. (See “The Cream Debate” below for more on this)

Butter has even higher requirements. A Holstein will produce 1 pound of cheese from 8.1 gallons of milk, while a Jersey needs only about 4.4 gallons.

The downside for Microdairies is that both of these products require 2x to 4x the cold storage space, and more processing equipment, both dramatically rising costs.

The upside? Higher profit products. After all, most households only use a couple of gallons of milk a week. You need something else to sell.

Most of our smallest farmers are better off sticking to milk, then butter, and only venturing into cheese when their volume is high enough.

While butter requires more milk – it has a much simpler process and requires less equipment, making it more immediately accessible to the small farmer to sell.

Milkfat doesn’t matter as much on the commodity market. If you want to sell cheese and butter directly from your farm, you need to push into the highest milkfat for the lowerst cost of feed – and this will point you to the Jersey or the Guernsey as a better option.

Holstein Cows Versus Jersey Cows (The Cream Debate)

As a youth I grew up on Holsteins farms. It’s what the local dairy required.

But most of the homesteaders I knew preferred Jersey’s for their high cream (and, therefore, butter making) value.

Here’s what most homesteaders miss:

Large dairies like Holsteins is that they make up for their lower milkfat with higher milk production.

You actually get more total cream from a Holstein over a Jersey.

• Holsteins yield 7-9 gallons per day at a 3.5% butterfat.
• Jerseys yield 4-6 gallons per day at a 5.0% butterfat.

The downside – and why Micro Dairies love the Jersey – are the feed requirements . A Jersey is generally happy with 1.5 acres per cow, while a Holstein will need the full two acres per cow.

If you are pushing into cheese, the breed may not matter as much, but butter has extremely high milkfat requirements.

The Best Cattle Breeds

Holstein Friesian

These cows with black and white markings are a favorite across America’s commoditized milk process. Here are their stats.

• Gallons per day: 7–9 gallons (highest of any breed)
• Butterfat: 3.5% | Protein: 3.1%
• Acres recommended: 1.5–2.5 acres per cow
• Weight: 1,400–1,600 lbs

If you have acreage, go with the Holstein for milk volume. This breed is also used for beef production, providing 20% of America’s supply.

Jersey

These are a smaller breed, with big gentle brown eyes and a gentle manner. Their high cream milk production makes them a favorite of Micro Dairy breeds. Here are their stats.

• Gallons per day: 4–5.5 gallons
• Butterfat: 4.9–5.2% | Protein: 3.7%
• Acres recommended: 1–1.5 acres per cow
• Weight: 800–1,000 lbs

Micro dairies with limited feed options and smaller acreages win with the Jersey.

Guernsey

A popular dual purpose breed among artisinal farmers, they lack the high volume of production from the Holsteins, and their butterfat content is lower than the Jerseys. We are still seeing an increasse in this breed as they occupy the middle ground between Holstein’s volume and Jersey’s richness. Here are their stats:

• Gallons per day: 4.5–5.5 gallons
• Butterfat: 4.5% | Protein: 3.4%
• Acres recommended: 1.2–1.8 acres per cow
• Weight: 1,000–1,200 lbs

Saying you run a “Guernsey Farm” has local brand value and can let you charge a higher premium.

Brown Swiss

One of the hardiest breeds, we would love to see more brown swiss cows in America farming. They offer high production with a decent butterfat, making these strong contenders. Their longevity means that lifespan replacement costs tend to be lower over a 10 year lifespan. Here are their stats:

• Gallons per day: 5–7 gallons
• Butterfat: 4.0% | Protein: 3.5%
• Acres recommended: 1.5–2 acres per cow
• Weight: 1,300–1,500 lbs

If you fall in love with your cows, you may grieve a little more when these ladies finaly make their way to cow heaven.

Ayrshire

Not very popular in America, but an honorable mention as cheesemakers love the fat-to-protein ratio of these animals. The Ayshire are also hardy, making them a great choice when weather is a problem.

• Gallons per day: 4.5–5.5 gallons
• Butterfat: 4.0% | Protein: 3.3%
• Acres recommended: 1.5–2 acres per cow
• Weight: 1,000–1,200 lbs

Not a stellar winner in any category and their high cost per acquisition makes them a tough breed to get immediately profitable on. However there could be a good track here to runnin a breeding program alongside the milking program.

The Bottom Line

It comes down to acreage and what you can sell today. If you have a lot of acreage, choosing a Holstein or Guernsey is a great play. If space is limited, the Jersey is extremely attractive.

On top of that, be conscious of your route to profitability. Our farmers with less than $100,000 to invest in dairy processing find that Milk and Yogurt are the first things they bring to market, followed by butter, and finally by cheese.

Butter has the highest Milk fat needs, and if this is important to your operation, you can increase profitablity by leaning into a breed that produces the highest milkfat.