DAIRY FOARMING
Dairy farming is a class of agricultural or an animal husbandry, enterprises, for long-term production of milk, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a diary factory for processing and eventual retail sale.
Most dairy farms sell the male calves born by their cows, usually for year production, breeding depending on quality of the Bull calf rather than raising non-milk –producing stock. Many dairy farms also grow their own feed, typically including corn, alfalfa. And hay. This is fed directly to the cows, or is stored as silage for use during the winter seasons. Additional dietary supplements are added to the feed to increase quality mink production.
History of dairy farming
Hand Milking
Until the late 1800s the milking of the cow was done by hand. In the United States, several large dairy operations existed in some northeastern states and in the west, that involved as many several hundred cows, but an individual milker could not be expected to milk more than a dozen cows a day. Smaller operations predominated.
The first milking machines were an extension of the traditional milk pail. The early miler device fit on top of a regular milk pail and sat on the floor under the cow. Following each cow being milked, the bucket would be dumped into a holding tank. This developed into the surge hanging milker. Prior to milking a cow, a large wide leather strap called a surcingle was put around the cow, across the cow’s lower back The mailer device and collection tank hung underneath the cow from the strap. This innovation allowed the cow to move around naturally during the milking process rather than having to stand perfectly still over a bucket on the floor.
With the availability of electric power and suction milking machines, the production levels that were possible in stanchion barns increased but the scale of the operations continued to be limited by the labor intensive nature of the milking process. Attaching and removing milking machines involved repeated heavy lifting of the machinery and its contents several times per cow and pouring of the milk into milk cans. As a result, it was rare to find single-farmer operations of more than 50 head of cattle.
Milking pipeline
Main article : Milking pipe line
The next innovation in automatic milking was the milk pipeline. This uses a permanent milk return pipe and a second vacuum pipe that encircles the barn or milking parlor above the rows of cows, with quick-seal entry ports above each cow. By eliminating the need for the milk container, the milking device shrank in size and weight to the point where it could hang under the cow, help up only by the sucking force of the milker nipples on the cow’s udder. The milk is pulled up into the milk-return pipe by the vacuum system, and then flows by gravity to the millhouse vacuum-breaker that puts the milk in the storage tank. The pipeline system greatly reduced the physical labor of milking since the farmer no loger needed to carry around huge heavy buckets of milk from each cow.
The pipeline allowed barn length to keep increasing and expanding, but after a pint farmers started to milk the cows in large groups, filling the barn with one-half to one third of the herd, milking the animal, and then emptying and refilling the barn. As herd sizes continued to increase, this evolved into the more efficient milking parlor.
Milking parlors
Innovation in milking focused on mechanizing the milking parlour to maximise throughput of cows per operators, which streamlined the milking process to permit cows to be milked as if on an assembly line, and to reduce physical stresses on the farmers by putting the cows on a platform slightly above the person milking the cows to eliminate having to constantly bend over. Many older and smaller farms still have the-stall or stanchion barns, but worldwide a majority of commercial farms have parlours.
The milking parlor allowed a concentration of money into a small area, so that more technical monitoring and measuring equipment could be devoted to each milking station in the parlor. Rather that simply milking into a common pipeline for example, the parlor can be equipped with fixed measurement systems that monitor milk volume and record milking statistics for each animals. Tags on the animals allow the parlor system to automatically identify each animals as it enters the parlor.
More modern farms use recessed parlors, where the milker stands in a recess such that his arms are at the level of the cow’s udder. Recessed parlors can be herringbone, where the cows stand in two angled rows either side of the recess and the milkier accesses the udder from the rear or, more recently, rotary (or carousel) where the cows are on a raised circular platform, facing the centre of the circle, and the platform rotates while the milker stands in one place and accesses the udder from the rear. There are many other styles of milking parlors which are less common.
Herringbone and parallel parties
In herringbone and parallel parlors, the milker generally milks one row at a time. The milker will move a row of cows from the holding yard into the milking parlors, and milk each cow in the that row. Once all or most of the milking machines have been removed from the milked row, the milker release the cows to their feed. A new group of cows in then loaded into the now vacant side and the process repeat unit all cows are milked. Depending on the size of the milking parlor, which normally is the bottleneck, these rows of cows can range from four to sixty at the time.
In rotary parlors, The cows are loaded one at a time onto the platform as it slowly rotates. The milker stands near the entry to the parlor and puts the cups on the cows as they move past. By the time the platform has completed almost a full rotation, another milker or machine removes the cups and the cow steps backwards off the platform and then walks to her feed.
It can be harmful to an animals for it to be over-milked past the point where the udder has stopped releasing milk. Consequently the milking process involves not just applying the milker, but also monitoring the process to determine when the animals has been milked out and the milker should be removed. It also increased the number of animals to be monitored simultaneously by the farmer. The automatic take-off system was developed to remove the milker from the cow when the milk flow reaches a present, relieving the farmers of the duties of carefully watching over 20 or more animals being milked at the same time.
In the year 1980 and 1990s robotic milking systems were developed and introduced (principally in the EU)These of these systems are now in routine operation. In these systems the cow has high degree of autonomy to choose her time of milking within pre-defined windows. These system are generally limited to intensively managed systems although research continues to match them to the requirements of grazing cattle and to develop sensors to detect animal health and fertility automatically.
Keeping milk cool helps presser it. When windmills and well pumps were invented, one of its first uses on the farm besides providing water for animals was for cooling milk, to extended the storage life before being transported to the town market. The naturally cold underground water would be continuously pumped into tub or other containers of milk set in the tub to cool after milking. This method of milk cooling was extremely popular before the arrival of electricity and refrigeration. The milk is extracted from the cow’s udder by flexible rubble sheaths known as liner or inflations that are surrounded by a rigid air chamber. A pulsating flow of ambient air and vacuum is applied to the inflation’s air chamber during the milking process. When ambient air is allowed to enter the chamber, the vacuum inside the inflation causes the inflation to collapse around the cow’s teat, squeezing the milk out of teat in a similar fashion as a body calf’ mouth massaging the teat. When the vacuum is reapplied in the chamber the flexible rubber inflation relaxes and opens up, preparing for the next squeezing cycle.
It takes the average cow three to five minutes to give her milk. Some cows are faster or slower. Slow-milking cows may take up to fifteen minutes to let down all their milk. Milking speed is only minority related to the quantity of milk the cow produces – milking speed is a separated factor from milk quantity; milk quantity is not determinative of milking speed. Because most milkers milk cattle in groups, the milker can only process a group of cows at the speed of the slowest milking cow. For this reasons, many farmers will cull slow-milking cows.
The extracted milk passed through a strainer and plate heat exchangers before entering the tank, where it can be stored safely for a few days at approximately 3*c or around 42 *F( 6*c). At pre-arranged times, a milk truck arrives and pumps the milk from the tanks for the transport to a dirary factory where it will be pasteurized and processed into may products.
Animals waste from large dairies
As measured in phosphorus, the waste output of 5000 cows roughly equals a municipality of 70000 people. In the U.S. , dairy operations with more than 1000 cows meet the EPA definition of a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) and are subject to EPA REGULATION. For example, in the San Joaquin Valley of California a number of dairies have been established on a very large scale. Each dairy consists of several modern milking parlor setups operated as single enterprise. Each milking parlor is surrounded by a set of 3 or 4 loafing barns housing 1500 or 2000 cattle. Some of the larger dairies have planned10 or more series of loafing barns and milking parlors in this arrangement, so that the total operation may include as many as 15000 or 20000 cows. The milking process for theses dairies is similar to a smaller diary with a single milking parlor but repeated several times. The size and concentration of cattle creates major environmental issues associated with manure handling and disposal which requires substantial areas of cropland ( a ratio of 5 or 6 cows to the acre, or several thousand acres for dairies of this size) for manure spreading and dispersion, or several-acre methane digesters. Air pollution form methane gas associated with manure management also is a major concern. As a result, Proposals to develop dairies of this size can be controversial and provoke substantial opposition from environmentalists including the Sierra Club and local activities.
The potential impact of large diaries was demonstrated when a massive manure spill occurred on a 5000 cow dairy in Upstate New York, contaminating a 20 mile (32km) stretch of the Black River, and killing 375000 fish. On Aug 10 2005 a manure storage lagoon collapsed releasing several million gallons of manure into the Black River. Subsequently the New York Department of Environmental Conservation mandated a settlement package of $2.2 million against the dairy.
Use of hormones
Future information: Bovine somatotropin
It is possible to maintain higher milk production by injecting cows with growth hormones known as recombinant BST or BGH, but this is controversial due to its effects on animal and possibly human health. The European Union, Japan, Australia New Zealand and Canada have banned its use due to such concerns. However, no such prohibition exists in the US, where approximately 22% dairy cows are treated in this way. The US, Food and Drug Administration maintains that no ”significant difference” has been found milk from treated and non-treated cows but based on consumer concerns several milk purchasers and resellers have elected not to purchase milk produced with rBST.
Management of the dairy herd.
Modern dairy farmers use milking machines and sophisticated plumbing systems to harvest and store the milk from the cows, which are usually milked twice or thrice daily. During the warm months, in the northern hemisphere, cow may be allowed to graze in their pastures, both day and night, and are brought into the barn only to be milked. Many barns also incorporate tunnel ventilation into the architecture of the barn structure. This ventilation system is highly efficient and involves opening both ends of the structure allowing cool air to blow through the building. Farmers with this type of structure keep cows inside during the summer months to prevent sunburn and damage to udders. During the winter months, especially in northern climates, the cows may spend the majority of their times inside the barn, which is warmed by their collective body heat. Even in winter, the heat produced by the cattle requires the barns to be ventilated for cooling purposes. Many modern facilities, and particularly those in tropical areas, keep all animals inside at all times to facilities, and particularly those in tropical areas, keep all animals inside at all times to facilities, and particularly those in tropical areas, keep all animals inside at all times to facilitate herd management. Housing the cow can be either loose housed or stalls (Called cow cubicles in UK).
In the southern hemisphere milking animals are more likely to spent most of their loves outside on pasture. (citation needed) there is little research available on dimensions required for cow stalls, and much housing can be out of date, however increasingly companies are making farmers aware of the benefits, in terms of animal welfare, health and milk production
The production of milk requires that the cow be in lactation, which is a result of the cow having given birth to a calf. The cycle of insemination. Pregnancy parturition, and lactation followed by a “dry” period before insemination can recur, requires a period of 12 to 16 months for each cow. Dairy operations therefore included both the production of milk and the production of calves are either castrated and raised as steers for beef production or raised for veal. As the size of herds has increased, the conditions in which large number of veal calves are raised, fed and marketed on larger dairies also have provoked controversy among animal right activists.
A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk –mostly from goats or cows, but also from buffalo, sheep horses or camels-for human consumption. Typically it is a cheese.
Structure of the industry
While most countries produce their own milk products, the structure of the dairy industry tarries in different parts of the world. In less developed countries the producer generally sells directly to the public , whereas in major milk –producing countries most milk is distributed through wholesale markets,. In Ireland and Australia, for example, farmers co-operatives own many of the large –scale processors, while in the united states farmers and processors do business through individual contracts.
As in many other branches of the food industry, dairy processing in the major dairy producing countries has become increasingly concentrated, with fewer but larger plants operated by fewer workers. This is notably the case in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Plants producing liquid milk and products with short shelf life, such as yogurts, creams and soft cheese, tend to be located on the outskirts of urban centers close to consumer markets. Plants, manufacturing items with longer shelf life, such as butter, milk powders cheese and whey powders, tend to be situated in rural areas closer to the milk supply.
Most large processing plants tend to specialize in a limited range of products. Exceptionally, however, large plants producing a wide range of products are still common in Eastern Europe, a holdover from the former centralized, supply-driven concept of the market.
As processing plants grow fewer and larger, they tend to acquire bigger, more automated and more efficient equipment. While this technological tendency keeps manufacturing cost lower, the need for long-distance transportation often increases the environmental impact.
Operation of the dairy farm
See dairy farming and dairy cattle for more information
When it became necessary to milk larger numbers of cows, the cows would be brought to a shed or barn that was set up with bails (stalls) where the cows could be confined while they were milked. One persons could milk more cows this way, as many as 20 for a skilled worker. But having cows standing about in the yard and shed waiting to be milked is not good for the cow, as she needs as much time in the paddock grazing as it possible . It is usual to restrict the twice daily milking to a maximum of an hour and a half each time. It makes no difference whether one milks 10 to 1000 cows the milking time should not exceed a total of about three hours each day for any cow.
As herd sizes increased there was more need to have efficient milking machines sheds, milk storage facilities(vats) bulk-milk transport and shed cleaning capabilities and the means of getting cows from paddock to shed and back.
Farmers found that cows would abandon their grazing area and walk towards the milking area when the time came for milking. This is not surprising as, in the flush of the milking season, cows presumably get very uncomfortable with udders engorged with milk, and the place of relief for them is the milking shed.
As herd numbers increased so did the problems of animal health. In new Zealand tow approaches to this problems have been used. The first was improved veterinary medicines (and the government regulation of the medicines) that the farmer could use. The other was the creation of veterinary clubs
Where groups of farmers would employ a veterinarian (Vet) Full time and share those services throughout the year. It was in the vet’s interest to keep the animals healthy and reduce the number of calls from farmers, rather than to ensure that the farmer needed to call for service and pay regularly.
Most dairy farmers milk their cows with absolute regularity at a minimum of twice a day with some high-producing herds milking up to four times a day to lessen the weight of large volumes of milk in the udder of the cow. This daily milking routine goes on for about 300 to 320 day per year that the cow that the cow stays in milk. Some small herds are milked once a day for about the last 20 days of the production cycle but this is not usual for large herds. It a cow is left unmilked just once she is likely to reduced milk-production almost immediately and the rest of the season may see her dried off(giving no milk) and still consuming feed for no production. However, once-a day milking is now being practiced more widely in Zew Zealand for profit and lifestyle reasons. This is effective because the fall in milk yield is at least partially offset by labour and cost saving from milking once per day. This compares to some intensive farm systems in the United States that milk three or more times per day due to higher milk yields per cow and lower marginal labor costs.
Farmers who are contracted to supply liquid milk for human consumption(as opposed to milk for processing into butter, cheese, and so on – see milk often have to manage their herd so that the contracted number of cows are in milk the year round, or the required minimum milk output is maintained. This is done by mating cows outside their natural mating time so that period when each cow in the herd is giving maximum production it in rotation throughout the year.
Northern hemisphere farmers who keep cows in barns almost all the year usually manage their herds to give continuous production of milk so that they get paid all year round. In the southern hemisphere the cooperative dairying systems allow for two months on no productivity because their systems are designed to talk advantage of maximum gross and milk production in the spring and because the milk processing plants pay bonuses in the dry (winter) seasons to carry the farmers though the mid-winter break from milking. It also means that cows have a rest from milk production when they are most heavily pregnant. Some year-round milk farms are penalized financially for over-production at any time in the year by being unable to sell their overproduction at current prices.
Artificial Insemination (AI) is common in all high- production herds.
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