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jeudi 15 janvier 2015

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.

Most of the dairy farms in the United States are family-owned and typically each farm has on average about 130 dairy cows producing as much as 7 gallons of milk per cow per day. Some small dairies only have about a dozen cows and there are a few dairy farms with thousands of cows. You will find most of our nation's cows either in California or Wisconsin. Each of these cows is milked twice each day, and your typical dairy cow weighs about 1,400 pounds.

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.

Cows only have one stomach but with four compartments, of which each compartment have specific functions in the food processing, and this is contrary to popular belief that cows have four stomachs. About 100 pounds each day is typically consumed by each dairy cow. Silage, hay, grains and a few other sources of proteins are typically these combinations of the food consumed. Corn and preserved grains are those contained in silage.

Typically, a dairy farmer has many concerns including feeding and caring of the dairy cows each day, and this also includes harvesting of milk daily. Each of the cows produce several gallons of milk each day but in addition to this, the cows also produce a lot of waste each day and part of the farmer's job is removing of these wastes and storing these in the lagoons or waste pits.

While this agricultural waste can be used as a fertilizer for crops, there are many common problems associated with waste. These problems include the solidifying of waste at the bottom of a lagoon or pit, causing a heavy sludge layer or the crusting of the top layer. Pit foaming is another common problem. Natural products such as Agra Sphere and Activator use naturally occurring bacteria to eat away at sludge and crust and also to reduce foaming. These manure treatments contain no chemicals only bacterial microbes which act as a manure digester. These products also improve the nutrient value of the waste, making it a better fertilizer.




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