Family farm swaps cows for goats amid changed dairy industry

HYDE PARK, Vt. (AP) — Two brothers operating their family’s dairy farm in Vermont have made the drastic decision to give up hundreds of cows for goats. The Jones family, which had raised cows for 150 years, now houses about 1,000 goats in their barn that remains adorned with painted cut-outs of dairy cattle. Fluctuating milk prices paid to dairy cow farmers in the U.S. and rising costs have driven some small family farms to either go big or out of business. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of dairy cow farms fell by more than half between 2003 and 2020 while the number of cows nationwide grew as farms consolidated.