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Madison Co. Virginia | To reply to my own question -- One of the appeals of dairy farming is the integration aspect of all of it. Crops, heifers, facilities, equipment, employees, family, and cows are all enmeshed together. Dairy has all the complexities of a very diversified farm, but the individual aspects can't be neatly compartmentalized into their own little boxes; they're all codependent on each other.
Dairy farming feels the most like 'real' farming to me, with a distinct nod to the days of subsistence farming 150 years ago. Most of the resources and effort spent on the farm are going to support another aspect of the farm. Spreading manure to fertilize a crop; harvesting a crop to feed the herd; raising heifers to sustain the herd. etc.
Dairy is the closest to being a 'lifestyle' of any farming type; stepping away from the farm, or being hands-off for any amount of time, is simply not an option.
Dairy is focused on the long view. We put a lot of effort into planting a crop, that crop matures in six months, is fed to the heifer in eighteen months, and the heifer calves out in thirty months. There's plenty of actions happening now that won't bring in any income for well over two years. This long-term outlook, and the fact that you can't just start and stop at will, distinguishes dairy from the various short-term livestock options, such as feeders or broilers.
I'm easily bored, and can't imagine locking myself into a single residential-construction job for my working life, as so many of my peers do. Dairy gives me the chance to play with a lot of different things, both on and off the farm.
Also, I just really like a good-looking Jersey cow. A fast clean milking is a real thrill too. There's nothing quite as much fun as carrying a new heifer calf over my shoulders for the quarter-mile walk up to the barn, with a well-uddered and well-behaved third-lactation cow tagging along behind the whole way.
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Why is dairy farming so appealing to some folks?
