Can I legally own a Dairy cow????

[MurraysMutts]

Dairy cows are legal as long as they're not semiautomatic or have high capacity magazine's....to be safe better get a double barrel.

Awwww man! I always wanted a semi-automatic high capacity holstien! No a.i. required.....
Dern it.

 

[sstterry]

This whole conversation makes me sad. That we have got to the point that we tell property owners what they can and can't do with their property.

These are also the laws that prevent porn stores, strip clubs, liquor stores and bars from moving in next to you or a school. They have a purpose.

 

[Timmer]

Check with your city, not just your county.

I have 14 acres and my neighbors around me all have 20 acres or more. However, we are all in an area that is zoned Rural Residential, as opposed to just Rural. I had to go to my city and get an Interim Use Permit (IUP) in order to have farm animals. There were hoops to jump through and associated expenses. The application was $550. They dictated a lot. I had to have the infrastructure before they would issue the IUP. They inspected my pasture and fence. I had to have a 3 sided shelter so I had to build a loafing shed, and there is a limit of no more than 1 animal per 2 acres of pasture. We tried getting variances for the shelter and animal limit, but were denied. We explained we are doing annual beef cattle and that we wouldn't have them over the winter, and we would be supplementing their food. It didn't matter, those were the rules.

 

[Dave]

As normal it would be nice if the original poster listed a location. Things will vary a lot through out the country. The county I lived in up in Washington Rural Residential you could do any normal farming practices. You just couldn't sub divide to less than 5 acres. The exception was those areas within the urban growth boundary. In those areas you had the same rules as the city of which you are within their urban growth area. Here the entire county is open range. Cattle get driven down the road all the time. Including at least on the edge of town if not through town. If a cow decided to step out of the drive into someones yard to eat the flowers...... well they should have built a fence. A person can have a cow, pig, or chicken anywhere they live.

 

[RDFF]

Here the entire county is open range. Cattle get driven down the road all the time. Including at least on the edge of town if not through town. If a cow decided to step out of the drive into someones yard to eat the flowers...... well they should have built a fence.

Called a "fence out" state. Oh for those days......... Good fences make good neighbors.

 

[FungusProudKY31]

Teach it to bark and call it a dog, decide on a condition you have and call it a support animal but regardless it will need an emissions control system in an urban area. Cow gas is a killer unless the muffler is a good one. Farmers have been dying of cow gas for years - I read about it in the National Enquirer.

 

[Dave]

Called a "fence out" state. Oh for those days......... Good fences make good neighbors.

It is legally open range. Here all of the on ramps and off ramps on the Interstate have cattle guards. You know that you are in cattle country when you see that.
Just last Sunday we got off I-84 headed for church. Caught the tail end of about 300 head of mamma cows march across the over pass. Two cowboys horse back and two dogs bringing up the rear. I am not certain where they started from but the road they had come down has to be at least 5 miles to first pasture. That road is sort of the edge of town. The north side is fenced farm ground. The south side has a mobile home park, a couple of big churches, and several housing developments. About 2 miles in the direction they came from you go right in front of the hospital, clinics, and 4 or 5 businesses with big parking lots. They had to cross a main line RR and the old highway which is a 55 mph road where the cows would have a stop sign and the traffic is drive through intersection. But the cows just march on through.

 

[farmerjan]

Often, if a practice was already in place on a property when the ordinance that will forbid it changes, it is grandfathered in FOR THE CURRENT OWNER, but it typically will not be permitted on that property into the future when the property changes hands. Sometimes the "grandfathering in" may still apply with changes of ownership to a relative of the current owner.

It's a way of accomplishing the goal of the zoning change over time by attrition. "Grandfathered in" has it's + and - though too. Often, once a zoning change takes place, say when a town or city annexes land for expansion and "urban sprawl", and the land zoning changes from agricultural to i.e.: commercial..., the property value and taxes on the property will also drastically increase, to the point that the "ag" guy will no longer be able to afford to stay, and continue to float the tax burden from his farming operation revenues. So he'll end up selling off pieces of the farm, just to be able to continue and pay the taxes. He can no longer "expand" his operation to increase revenues... he'd never get the permits...zoning won't allow "expansion" outside of the current zoning restrictions... only "continuation as is" with what was there when the zoning changed. Eventually, all the hassle of trying to farm through all the traffic and development, and the complaints of neighbors just isn't worth it anymore, so he sells out. Yes, at that point, he's got some money in his pocket.... but he had to give up the "family farm dream"... Grandpa's farm... often a "fourth or fifth generation century farm" even, and if he's got enough years left in him, he has to leave that history behind, and start over again, farther out away from the city.

That's just the way it is. When my Mom was a little girl (1930's), her Dad was a minister. They lived in a small town, on a small town lot. But they had a little barn in the backyard, and they had a milk cow and about 30 chickens, for eggs and meat, and they had a pretty large garden, onto which they put their manure. Not many "towns" ordinances will allow that anymore. There's reasons for that. I live nearby to Rochester, MN, home of the Mayo Clinic. Even the Mayo's had a farm "in town" with cattle, and sheep, and horses... they were quite proud of them, and the Mayo Clinic is proud to display that image of the Mayo brothers. But Mayo Clinic is the biggest driver of growth in Rochester today, and that growth has drastically changed the "agricultural landscape" that Rochester and the surrounding communities used to be. The area is very hostile to agriculture, and ESPECIALLY animal agriculture, anywhere near to the city. They see our farms as "vacant land", and us farmers that operate it as "peasant tenants" that are just taking care of the land for them until they have need of it.

How does urban sprawl happen? A BIG contributor is when those who don't make their living off of the land, want to have their little piece of heaven in the country (can't blame anybody for wanting that!).............. but that then means you will have a non-ag residence in the ag protection district. Housing developments that consume 2-5-10 acres per household, typically in what was an ag protection district. That's an awful lot of land just for a house. Urban sprawl. Expensive "life savings" (your words) homes built there, and now they fear the "agriculture" next door might negatively impact it's value (and they're right... IT MAY!!!). They don't want to be smelling manure, hear cattle bawling, have dust, or hear tractors and combines and trucks running at all hours of the day and night, they don't even want to be able to hear a windmill turning a half mile away. They think that when they bought their place, that meant that they then "owned" the view across their neighbors land too, and because of that, they insist on dictating what their neighbor can and can't do with their land, because it'll "impact their view", or "impact the peaceful serenity" that they moved out into the country to find. Once these non-ag residences outnumber the actual farmers that live and make their living in the township, they then control the township, and overrule the "ag voice".

Sense a little hostility? You're right. The problem is, nobody thinks that THEY'RE the one that will cause these problems, until they ARE. THAT'S why we now have zoning ordinances............ and THAT'S why variances to those ordinances should not be granted easily.

Agree with most everything you said. Yep, lots of hostility here for some of the same BS... but if it is grandfathered here.... and it is continued. it still will hold water with the next owner.....Son got that when he bought his 2 lots that were once a farm...2 1/2 acres each M/L.... and he has kept chickens and sheep and an occasional cow there... has to be maintained for ag.... Got that same BS problem across the road when a friend of ours sold that farm and it got developed with all sorts of restrictive covenants.... and now a couple of them want to be able to have some livestock on the larger pieces... 5-8-12 acres that were on the ends of the roads or steep and had to be bigger to meet requirements for house/septic /well.
Got one SOB YANKEE IDIOT ( and I say that because we are originally Yankees that came south to escape the a$$holes up there) that has taken us to court several times over the cell tower son put on a 10 acre piece he bought and we make hay on. No, matter that it has benefitted everyone in the area.... they said it would ruin their view.... no one guaranteed them a view, past the end of their property... and we were here a long time before them.... bit@H and complain that she has had to come back from Mass to go to court..... go the he// back up there and stay and that will solve that problem..... GRRRRR