For anyone looking for a milk cow, I’ve been in your shoes quite a few times and usually know someone in your shoes at any given time. One would think it would be a simple matter to find a nice family cow but unfortunately it is not as easy as all that.

One thing that makes the search a lot more difficult for me is I go against the grain and opt not to own a Jersey cow. My breeds of preference are Guernsey and Ayrshire.

But let me give you a few ideas of where to look for a cow. First place to look is your local agricultural type classified ads if you have something like that in your area. We have ocala4sale.com so that’s where I usually start. Then I will look on Craigslist locally, but eventually I usually expand my search to include other states. There should also be other online classified farm ad sites which you can find in your area.

Check daily and don’t forget. I once lost out on some great Guernsey cows for sale because I started slacking and forgot to check the ads for a week or so. If you are in the market for a dairy cow keep checking every day.

Another thing you can do is check with your local 4H groups and FFA. See if the kids’ families have cows that are coming into milk. They might be willing to sell. Go to any local fairs or shows and network with other dairy people.

The main thing is to be proactive, and that is not just checking ads because quite often people have cows they are willing to sell but they have just not gotten around to placing an ad. Or maybe they don’t even realize they would sell any of their cows until you ask.