Smallholder farms represent the largest population of dairy cattle farms in Indonesia. Dairy activities can play an important role to secure the livelihood of smallholder farms. However, small farms have several constraints and challenges to be sustainable in the future. To assess the sustainability of smallholder dairy farms and to understand in what condition farms are more sustainable, we conducted a study in Subang and Bandung Barat district in West Java Province. We collected primary and secondary data from May 2015 to May 2016. We carried out a formal survey of 355 farmers from May to August 2015. From discussions with local stakeholders and literature review, we propose 6 indicators of sustainability scoring from 0 to 100. Result showed that the most sustainable were farms who had high capital and diversified activity (farms pattern 5). Farms who had low capital but who had additional activity (pattern 1) were more sustainable than specialized farms with low (pattern 2 and 3). Capital plays an important role to all 3 pillars of sustainability. In addition, diversity contributes to reduce risks related to dairy business and to benefit from synergies between activities. Our study underlines the importance of enhancing farm capital and diversification of rural households for increasing the sustainability of smallholder farms.