In Indonesia, rapid economic growth and awareness to consume nutritious food boost animal source foods, consumption, including dairy. As consequence, GDP from livestock sub-sector shows an enhancement to more than 56 percent during five years (2011-2015). Even though, it remains relatively low compared to other South East Asian countries, the demand of dairy products could not be covered by national production. The national production accounted for only around 835.000 tons in 2015 which is produced mostly by smallholder farms. Smallholder farms represent the vast majority of dairy cattle farms in Indonesia. With only 4 cows and less than 1 ha of cultivated land per household on average, dairy activities play an important role in securing the livelihoods of those smallholder farms. However, those farms face several constraints that preclude their sustainability. In that context, we wanted to research “in what condition smallholder dairy farms are more sustainable”. Our approach aimed at evaluating the sustainability of smallholder farms and assessing the dynamics and changes in milk production systems, in West Java Province. The first phase of our study (2014) was to identify the role of a local dairy development project and the needs of the dairy farms. We collected data from 61 farms through formal survey and from milk cooperative The second phase (2015-2016) was to evaluate the sustainability of smallholder dairy farms. After an extensive literature review, we carried out in-depth interviews with experts and local stakeholders (researchers, lecturers, government, cooperative, NGO, farmers) in order to propose six main indicators of sustainability scoring from 0 to 100. We then conducted a formal survey of 355 farmers that allowed us to quantify those indicators. The third phase (2016-2017) was to understand the dynamics of dairy farming systems. Based on the results of the formal survey of 355 farmers, we built a farm typology and characterized each type of farm.