Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Some Information Pertaining To Dairy Cows

By Lianne Derocco


In the United States, there are presently around 60,000 dairy farms, and these are farms producing 21 billion gallons of milk every year. In these farms are dairy cows, and these cows are part of one of the nation's very important industries. The following are some important information about these cows.

In each of these farms in the US, an average of 130 dairy cows are existing and these produce about 7 gallons of milk each every day, and these dairy farms are family owned, of which most of the dairy farms in the US are typically about. A few dairy farms have thousands of cows, and some are only with about a dozen cows. California and Wisconsin are the states where most of these cows can be found. The typical dairy cow weighs about 1,400 pounds and these cows are typically milked twice a day.

There are several different breeds of dairy cows, and in the United States, the Holstein breed is the most common and these first were bred in Holland. Other breeds include the Ayrshire breed, which comes from Scotland originally. The Brown Swiss breed is another type of dairy cow and, as the name suggests, this type of cow hails from Switzerland and is one of the world's oldest breeds of dairy cows. A few other types of dairy cows include the Guernsey breed and the Jersey breed, both of which originated in England.

A popular belief is that a cow has four stomachs, but this is not so because cows have only one stomach but with four compartments, and these individual compartments have specific functions in the food processing. One dairy cow typically eats 100 pounds of food daily. This typically is a combination of the following; grains, hay, silage and also other protein sources. Silage is a type of cow food consisting of corn and also preserved grass.

A dairy farmer has many concerns, including the feeding and care of each of the dairy cows but also dealing the harvesting of milk. In addition to the many gallons of milk a cow produces, these cows also produce a great deal of waste each day and part of a dairy farmer's job is removing the waste and storing it in a waste lagoon or waste pit.

There are many typical problems related to animal waste although this waste can also be used as fertilizers for drops. At the bottom of the waste pits or lagoons can be found solidified waste or sludge and at the top layer, crusting can be found, and these are common problems with wastes. Another common problem is pit foaming. There are natural products containing naturally occurring bacteria that will eat away the sludge and crust and also reduce foaming, and these include products such as Activator and Agra Sphere.. These are products containing only bacterial microbes to act as manure digester and is not a manure treatment containing chemicals. A better type of fertilizer is formed because the nutrient value of the animal waste is improved.




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