Settled at the base of Mount Shasta in Northern CA, Copeland Family Farms has become an icon in meat goat and grass-fed family milk cows. The Copeland Family has been ranching in Siskiyou County since the 1870’s. Bob and Dusty Copeland are the breeders of the Moneymaker Meat Goat ( a unique goat bred to produce twins with a weaning weight of 75 lbs in 5 months) and Family Milk Cows. In 2005 they began a farm share program, letting local families grow their own food on the farm. Bob and Dusty Copeland run the herdshare on the farm.
Our Certified American Chevon (TM) is a nationally recognized brand for quality light pink, sweet and milk chevon. We no longer ship goat meat, Farm share members can buy goat meat at the farm.
Our 100% grass-fed Family Milk Cows separate from other dairy cows by loosing the grain fed mentality and get back to the type of cow that settled the ranges in the 1800’s. Today’s dairy cows have gotten away from grass fed genetics and have become dainty, large cows with huge udders. More importantly they can not survive on grass alone and must be fed up to 40 POUNDS of grain every milking. We are breeding back into New Zealand Friesian, Guernsey, and the old fashioned Jersey and Normandie lines. All of our cows are tested for TB, Brucellosis, Johne’s, Neospora, BVD, Q fever and BLV. We test daily on site for mastitis coliforms and SPC’s. Our labs are sent to RAWMI monthly.
When looking for milk cows for our family; we discovered that there are no family milk cows today that have been bred as family milk cows. 100% of the cows we were looking at had all come off of dairies and the largest % of those were A1A2 genetics. We researched and found that it takes 17 generations to change the intestines of a cow to be able to ingest the amount of grain the dairies are feeding for maximum production today. We knew then, like our goats, we would have to develop our own breed of family milk cow. This will take time using a cross-bred genetics and looking at different lines.
We will have Family Milk Cows and heifers for sale occasionally. Most are halter broke, all are gentle and hand raised. We are using selected A2A2 bull semen, and most of our cows will be stanchion broke. We are honest with our buyers on why these cows are being sold, and knowing how difficult it was for us to find clean cows, we seek a reputation for clean cows with a known background. Cottonwood Vet clinic are the vets we use. We have begun our reputation with them.
Copeland Family Farms 