Also, I'm thinking about getting a cow this year, a Jersey. any thoughts? cow owners? dairy guys?

[truegrit44]

13. I raised Dexters for years they are wonderful!

Won't give a lot of milk but have a fairly high cream content and they are just wonderful small cows, don't take much feed, easy keepers, sweet dispositions. Also, provide an excellent meat if you want to butcher a bull calf.

Never heard of only breeding dairy cows every 7 years??????????? I am very familar with dairy operations and all of them breed their cows every year. They are pg 9 months so they breed them back within a couple of months after calving and then dry them off at 10 months until they calve and then start the process over.

I also raised dairy goats for many years and you can prolong them more than a year but you won't be getting much milk.

Read about the Dexters from above post