U.S. dairy farmers are breeding cows that are prodigious milk producers, says Harvest Public Media, and the exemplar is Gigi, a Holstein that produced a record 75,000 pounds of milk, or 8,700 gallons, in 2010. That’s three times the U.S. average, which has been growing since the late 1950s, with the result there are fewer cows and more milk. “In the last 10 years, production per cow has gone up 14 percent,” says reporter Luke Runyon. Dairy cattle also have gotten larger, so they can eat and digest the feed that produces their milk.
“Like nearly everything in agriculture, the increase in milk production doesn’t come without a few trade-offs. Colorado State University animal science professor Temple Grandin has been critical of the dairy industry, saying some farms are too focused on breeding hulking Holsteins with insatiable appetites and deep udders,” says Harvest Public Media. Grandin would prefer that dairy farmers try to optimize milk production than maximize it. Smaller cows have longer productive lives, calve more often and are less likely than their hulking herd mates to go lame or have lower reproductive rates.
If genetics is one way to boost milk production, another route is livestock handling to reduce stress on the cows. Veterinarian Doug Ford, who works in Colorado, “teaches dairy staff low-stress methods which allow the animals to move more freely between the milking parlor and their pens, focusing on how workers place their bodies in relation to the large bovines.”