Dairy

A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk (mostly from cows, sometimes from buffaloes, sheep or goats) for human consumption. The end product of such processes are known as dairy products. In Australia a dairy is also a shop or company that sells dairy products. In New Zealand a dairy is a shop selling convenience-food products. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it. Over the years, Dairy has become a multibillion-dollar industry.

Dairy processing

When it became necessary to milk larger numbers of cows—especially in such as New Zealand and Australia where the cows are out in the open all year round—the cows would be brought to a shed or barn that was set up with bails (stalls) where the cows could be held from moving about while they were milked. One person could milk more cows this way, as many as 20 for a good milker. But having cows standing about in yard and shed waiting to be milked is not good for the cow as she needs as much time in the paddock, grazing, as is 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 or 1000 cows, the milking time should not exceed a total of about three hours each day for any cow.

Related Topics:
New Zealand - Australia - Shed - Barn - Stall

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As herd sizes increased, or as machine-milking became more common and larger herd sizes were possible, there was more need to have efficient milking machines, milking sheds, milk-storage facilities (vats), shed cleaning capabilities and the means of getting cows from paddock to shed and back. Farmers, early, found that cows would abandon their grazing area and walk towards the milking area when the time came for milking. This is not surprising really as, in the flush of the milking season, cows must get very uncomfortable with udders full of milk and the place of relief for them is the milking shed.

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As herd numbers increased so did the problems of animal health. In New Zealand two approaches to this problem have been used. The first was improved veterinary medicines that the farmer could use (and the government regulation of the medicines). The second was the generation of veterinary clubs where groups of farmers would employ a veterinarian full-time and share those services throughout the year. It was in the veterinarian'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.

Related Topics:
New Zealand - Veterinary medicine

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Most dairy farmers milk their cows with absolute regularity twice a day. This twice-a-day milking goes on for about 300 to 320 days per year 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. If a cow is left unmilked just once she is likely to reduce 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 practised more widely in New Zealand for profit and lifestyle reasons. This is effective because the fall in milk yield is at least partially offset by labour and cost savings 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 labour costs.

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Farmers who are contracted to supply whole milk for human consumption (in New Zealand called "town-milk supply") 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 the period when each cow in the herd is giving maximum production is 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 take advantage of maximum milk production in the spring and because the milk processing plants pay bonuses in the dry season to carry the farmers through the mid-winter. Some year-round milk farms are penalised financially for over-production at any time in the year.

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Artificial insemination is common in all high-production herds.

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