Jersey Milk Cow Breeders
Red Spruce Farm has a small breeding program for Jersey milk cow herd in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, in Atlantic Canada.
As of 2026, each year we breed via artificial insemination (AI) at least three Jersey milk cows to registered Jersey bulls. These are our family farm milk cows that we milk each day, and we aim to help other homestead farmers secure their own milk in the same fashion as us by producing tame, halter broken, and healthy Jersey milk calves.
Our breeding program leaves it open to conversation how new Jersey milk cow owners would like their new milk cow.
- Jersey calf
- Jersey yearling
- Bred Jersey heifer
- Fresh-in-milk Jersey milk cow
Please contact us if you are interested in milking your own family farm or homestead milk cow.
Jersey Milk Cow Breed Characteristics
Red Spruce Farm’s Jersey milk cows are typically all brown cows, with some white spots that can develop around the hooves and on the nose, though their classic coloring is all black. We find ours shade darker around their nose later in life. Their most notable characteristics are their big, kind, and warm eyes that make anybody fall in love with them. This is also their temperament, as kind and docile animals in the barn; they will await as the other animals go into the barn for their turn.
Their typical size is smaller than many other milk breeds, typically around 800 – 1000 lbs (360 – 450 kg) and are only about 4′ tall at the hip. This makes their udder closer to the ground, which, when you’re milking either by hand or by machine, tends to make the milking machine claw rest on the ground a little or the teets to be a little further into the milking bucket. We also find that the Jersey milk cow teets are smaller than the other breeds of milk cows, which needs to be considered when you’re hooking them up to a milk machine or milking by hand as less comes out with each pull.
Milk quantity depends on how much dairy ration you feed, which we feed at every milking in their milking stanchion. We find a nice quantity for us is about 12 – 15L per milking. We milk our cows twice a day, making a total of 24 – 30 L of milk a day from one Jersey milk cow. We definitely find that the milk from our Jersey cow has a higher milk fat content, which is typically about 4.5-5.5%, compared to our Holstein/Jersey cow, where pure Holstein’s typically have about 3.2-3.5%.