Dairy cattle, generally of the species Bos
taurus, are domesticated animals bred to produce large quantities of milk.
A young dairy animal is
known as a calf. A female calf which has not given birth to a calf and is less
than thirty months old is called a heifer. When the heifer has reached the
stage in pregnancy where the udder starts to swell, it is known as a springer. After
calving, or when more than thirty months old, a female dairy animal is known as
a cow. The process of birthing a calf is known as calving or partuition. A male
dairy animal is called a bull at any stage of life, unless castrated, in which
case it is known as a steer until it is four years old, then it is called an
ox. A dairy animal's mother is known as its dam. Similarly, a dairy animal's
father is known as its sire.
Dairy cattle are now
specialized animals, focused primarily on producing milk. This milk is made
into various products, including cheese, yogurt, butter, ghee, cottage cheese,
and ice cream, and is consumed around the world.
Cattle on a
dairy farm in Maryland, United States.
Dairy cattle may be found
in herds on farms where dairy farmers own, manage, care for, and collect milk
from them. These herds range in size from small boutiques of fewer than five
cows to large conglomerates of 25,000 cows or more. The average dairy farmer in
the United States owns about one hundred cows and is about 53 years old.
Dairy cattle are
distinguished by sex at birth. Cows are unique in their ability to produce
milk, and thus heifers, young cows, are generally considered more valuable than
bulls, which are used solely for beef production and breeding purposes.
Most dairy calves are
separated from their dams within a few hours of birth. Such separation ensures
decreased risk of disease passing from dam to calf and also allows the dam to
begin producing milk for human consumption as soon as possible. The dam's first
milk, called colostrum, is rich with antibodies and immune factors, is required
for newborn calves to survive, although it is unfit for human consumption. A
calf must drink two quarts (2 L) of colostrum within twelve hours of birth or
its future may be in jeopardy, as a newborn calf has no immune system of its
own and must rely on maternal antibodies contained in the colostrum for
protection. The dam's milk quickly changes into that most suitable to humans,
and within three days after calving, a cow's milk is already on its way to
human hands. Most young stock then subsist on milk replacer, a commercial feed
additive used to take the place of the cow's natural milk, until old enough to
consume more solid foods.
In New Zealand and some
other countries male calves are slaughtered at two to four days for their abomasum
(fourth stomach), rennet and for veal.
In Europe and North America
most newborn dairy bulls will be slaughtered for veal before reaching six weeks
of age. Many bulls, however, will be raised as steers and butchered for
dairy-beef when about eighteen months old.
A select few high-quality
bulls, however, will be raised for breeding purposes. These bulls will
generally have excellent conformation, or type (for the breed), outstanding pedigrees
and, early in their breeding life, produce progeny that is superior in dairy
production.
Herd bulls, or bulls that
live with dairy cows and provide direct, natural breeding, will service up to
one hundred fifty cows at any given time. Such a bull will be used in one herd
for up to two years before the risk of inbreeding and the bull's increasingly
hostile temperament forces a farmer to move the bull to a new herd.
More recently, since the
1950s, artificial insemination has become the way of the dairy cow. Through
artificial insemination, fewer than a thousand elite bulls serve as sires for
entire generations of calves. Although conception is dependent upon effective
herd management and heat detection which increase the time the dairy farmer
must spend with the cows, a few factors have prompted farmers to use artificial
insemination nearly exclusively. The foremost contributor is the high quality
of calves produced through artificial insemination. Artificial insemination
also limits the need for farmers to maintain their own bulls, which contributes
to safety, as bulls can be dangerous animals to keep on the farm. Some dairy
farms, however, still use live bulls, as it is easier to maintain a few bulls
than implement the extensive herd management requirements to use artificial
insemination effectively.
Dairy cows
being fed
Dairy heifers are treated
most generously by farmers, as the heifers form the farmer's future herd of
cows. As a cow cannot produce milk until after calving (giving birth), most
farmers will attempt to breed heifers as soon as they are fit, at about fifteen
months of age. A cow's gestation period is about nine months (279 days long),
so most heifers give birth and become cows at about two years of age.
A cow will produce large
amounts of milk over its lifetime. Certain breeds, of course, produce more milk
than others; however, each breed normally used in dairy production ranges from
8,000 to 12,700 kg (18,000 to 28,000 pounds) of milk per annum. The average for
milk cows in the US in 2005 was 8,800 kg (19,576 pounds). The process of
milking the cow is essential for the cow's survival. If the cow is not milked
properly the pressure will build inside the udder causing it to explode.
About 70 days after
calving, a cow's milk production will peak. The cow is then bred. The cow's
production slowly dwindles until, at about 305 days after calving, the cow is
'dried', when the farmer stops milking her. About sixty days later, one year
after her previous calf was born, a cow will give birth again.
Alternatively, farms may
choose to forego this cycle, and settle for the lower production rate of
perennial cows. A survey performed by DHI Computing Service in Utah, found that
average production had dropped to 21.6 kg/day (corresponds to 7,900 kg/year)
after four years of continuous milking.
When kept inside year-round
most dairy cows live to be five or six years old before their annual milk
production decreases to the point where it is no longer profitable for a farmer
to keep them. Grazing cows will not produce as much milk; however, they will
likely have a longer lifetime, up to 12 years depending on production that is
measured monthly, because a farmer who grazes his cattle will generally retain
cows that produce less milk than cows owned by farmers who raise cattle in
barns. At death, the cow is butchered and sold for its meat.
More recently, certain
practices have been enacted to ensure that high quality cows' progeny is more
widespread than what is naturally possible. Some cows are 'flushed', where 7-12
embryos are removed from their reproductive systems. These embryos are then
transferred into other cows who serve as surrogate mothers. This process is
called an 'embryo transfer'.
Exotic dairy cattle are
divided into six major breeds. These are the: Holstein-Friesian, Brown Swiss, Guernsey,
Ayrshire, Jersey, Sahiwal and Milking Shorthorn. Other dairy breeds include Danish
Red, Red Sindhi, Butana, Illawarra, etc.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dairy_cattle&action=history
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html