About Cow Boarding

Cow (and goat) boarding is legal in Tennessee!Cow (and goat) boarding is legal in the state of TN.  Cow boarding is where a consumer owns a cow, either one sold to him by the farmer or one he brought to the farmer himself.  A farmer can set his own price for a cow and many people could split the cost of one cow. If 20 people, for example, all split the cost of a cow, then 20 people would own it.

A contract is, of course, in place, that states that as long as the cow is on the farmers property, the owners would not have any controlling rights over it. In other words, the owners could not have the cow vetted or moved or bred without the farmers consent, etc.  It would all be in the contract.

Then as part of the agreement, the farmer would keep the cow milked for them and give them their own milk.  No money changes hands for milk, only for labor or boarding.

I have heard about some cow boarding setups where the farmer sells the cow for, say $50, and then if a family gets 2 gallons of milk each week with the labor for milking each gallon being $5, the milking labor or board for the cow for the family for that month would be $40. If 20 people each paid that for the cows milking fee/board that would be $800 a month for the one cow. If a farmer has 10 cows all boarded with 20 owners getting 2 gallons per week that would be $8000 a month. And we know a cow can give more than 2 gallons per week. It is a pretty good setup.

The following is a letter from the TN Dept of Agriculture regarding cow boarding/sharing stating that they recognize it as legal.

This is the second page from a letter from the attorney of the TN Department of Agriculture. The first page is filled with nonsense so I didn’t include it, and most of this page is nonsense and posturing, but the good thing is they have now committed themselves in writing.

If you would like to find out who in TN does cow and goat boarding, just let me know and I will put you in touch with them.

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