Millhorn Farmstead

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Millhorn Farmstead Practical homestead systems that actually work. Chickens, dairy, and kitchen wisdom, without the guesswork. Start here → Millhornfarmstead.com Hi there! I'm Katie.

I'm a momma, a farmers wife, a preachers daughter and a homesteader. Raising 1 husband, 4 kiddos, a herd of A2A2 Jersey milk cows, Scottish highland beef, free range chickens and heritage pastured pork. Our dairy & eggs are Available at Pilgrims market in CDA Idaho. Please place Pork, beef and poultry orders online @ www.rawsomedairy.com. Farm tours BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Please respect our families privacy and Farms bio security measure.

10/12/2026

Have you ever actually figured out what your family milk cow costs you each month?

Not guessed. Actually figured it out.

The answer can be completely different from one homestead to another. Hay might be your biggest expense while someone else has good pasture most of the year. One cow gets grain, another doesn’t. Then there are minerals, bedding, vet expenses and all the little things that add up.

So I built a free Family Milk Cow Cost Calculator.

Plug in your own numbers and it’ll estimate your monthly cost, annual cost and cost per gallon.

And if you’re researching your first cow, you can use it to get a much better idea of what you’re getting into before you bring her home.

10/08/2026

There are plenty of parts of homesteading that feel like work.

Then there are evenings when I look around and remember how much I love this life.

Cows in the pasture. Chickens underfoot. Fields that need worked. Chores that will all need done again tomorrow.

After all these years, I still wouldn’t trade it.

What part of homesteading never gets old for you?

09/24/2026

When the power goes out on our farm, I’m not worried about the lights.

I’m thinking about water.

We’re on a well, so no electricity can quickly mean no easy way to get water to the livestock. And cattle drink a LOT of water.

A family milk cow adds another layer. You still need water for the cow, milking and washing equipment, plus a way to keep all that fresh milk cold.

Keeping livestock without electricity is nothing new. People did it for generations. But it helps to have a plan before you’re standing there trying to figure out how you’re going to move hundreds of pounds of water.

I put together how I prepare for keeping a family milk cow through a power outage here:

Keeping a Family Milk Cow During a Power Outage

If your well stopped working tomorrow morning, what’s your backup plan for livestock water?

My homestead journey started with a mouse infestation and a couple of free roosters off Craigslist.I’m not kidding.We we...
09/17/2026

My homestead journey started with a mouse infestation and a couple of free roosters off Craigslist.

I’m not kidding.

We were living in an old 120-year-old homestead house with more mice inside than outside. I read somewhere that old timers used chickens for mouse control.

So naturally, I got chickens.

And yes, they caught mice.

Those first chickens eventually turned into larger gardens, more livestock, food preservation, milk cows, and a whole lot of learning along the way.

I think that’s the part people miss when they dream about homesteading. You don’t have to have it all figured out before you start.

Start with something. Learn how to do it. Then add the next thing.

I wrote about how we started, along with what I’d recommend for someone starting a homestead today.

How to Start a Homestead: A Beginner’s Guide⁠ - link in comments.

What was the first thing that started your homestead journey?

09/15/2026

You have an extra $100 this week.

The only rule is you have to spend it on something that will make your home or homestead better prepared six months from now.

What are you buying?

I know exactly where mine is going. But I want to hear yours first.

I’m on a mission to get more actual meals on my pantry shelves this year.And taco soup is always at the top of the list....
09/14/2026

I’m on a mission to get more actual meals on my pantry shelves this year.

And taco soup is always at the top of the list.

Because there are absolutely going to be nights this winter when I do not want to cook.

Grab a jar, heat it up, add cheese, sour cream and a handful of tortilla chips. Dinner.

Cheese, sour cream or tortilla chips? What are you putting on yours?

Recipe is in the comments 👇

Do you really need 10 acres to raise cattle?No.But “How many acres per cow?” doesn’t have one universal answer either.Go...
09/02/2026

Do you really need 10 acres to raise cattle?

No.

But “How many acres per cow?” doesn’t have one universal answer either.

Good irrigated pasture and dry ground are two completely different things. Your growing season, rainfall, forage quality, number of animals, and whether you’re willing to feed hay all change the equation.

And here’s the part people sometimes miss:

Owning enough land to keep cattle and owning enough land to feed them year-round are not the same thing.

A smaller property can absolutely work for both beef and dairy cattle if you understand what that means for hay, manure, fencing, pasture management, and stocking rates.

I broke down what you actually need to consider before deciding whether your property has enough room for cattle.

Link in first comment. Or Comment LAND and I’ll send you the article.

One of the biggest surprises with a first family milk cow is that the amount of milk in your bucket is always changing.S...
08/28/2026

One of the biggest surprises with a first family milk cow is that the amount of milk in your bucket is always changing.

She doesn't calve and immediately settle into the same amount of milk every day.

Production climbs during those first weeks, reaches a peak, and then gradually declines as her lactation continues.

And if you're calf sharing? The amount in YOUR bucket isn't necessarily the amount your cow is producing. That calf may be helping himself to quite a bit.

I put together a new guide explaining the dairy cow lactation curve, when cows typically reach peak production, what a normal decline looks like, and when a sudden drop in milk is worth investigating.

Comment LACTATION and I'll send you the article.

My bull destroyed nearly an entire year’s worth of food while we were out of town.We came home to discover he had gotten...
08/18/2026

My bull destroyed nearly an entire year’s worth of food while we were out of town.

We came home to discover he had gotten out and made his way into the garden. Months of planting, watering, weeding, and growing food for our family were gone.

I’m absolutely devastated.

This garden wasn’t just something pretty to tend all summer. It was our tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peppers, onions, apples and months of food I planned to preserve and put on our shelves for winter.

There’s not much I can do about it now except salvage what I can and figure out how to fill the pantry another way.

And maybe there’s a little bit of a silver lining in that.

For years, local farmers and neighbors have supported me, our farm, my work, and everything we’ve built.

This year, I get to support them.

I’ll be buying tomatoes from someone else’s garden. Cucumbers from a farm stand. Peppers, beans, and whatever else I can find from the people growing food right here in our community.

I’m still going to fill the canning jars.

They’ll just be filled from my neighbors’ harvests instead of my own.

Sometimes supporting local means being the farmer. And sometimes it means being the customer.

Everyone wants to know how much milk a family cow will give them.I think there’s a better question to ask first:How much...
08/16/2026

Everyone wants to know how much milk a family cow will give them.

I think there’s a better question to ask first:

How much is she going to cost you? 🐄

Because buying the cow is only the beginning.

There’s hay, feed, minerals, breeding, bedding, vet care, fencing, equipment... and somehow I can never seem to leave the feed store with only the thing I went in for.

After years of keeping family milk cows, I wanted something better than a generic estimate.

So I built a free Family Milk Cow Cost Calculator.

You can plug in your own feed and hay prices, pasture season, milk production and other expenses to see your:

🥛 Monthly cost
🥛 Annual cost
🥛 Cost per gallon of milk

If you’re thinking about buying your first milk cow, run the numbers before you bring her home.

And if you already own one, I really want to know:

Have you ever calculated what your homegrown milk actually costs per gallon?

Thinking about buying a family milk cow? 🐄

Comment COST below and I’ll send you my free Family Milk Cow Cost Calculator so you can run the numbers using your own feed prices and expenses.

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Coeur D'alene, ID

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+15097019017

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