Talk:Dairy farming

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2019 and 18 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ameliadandrea.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:59, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untagged Discussion

I think this page should have a large segment of the content reassigned to the milking machine article, and then heavily interlink. Vaarok (talk) 00:05, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

This page should be used for material relating to the production of raw fluid milk. Everything about what happens after it comes out of the cow (or sheep or goat) should go in dairy. 18.24.0.120 03:41, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)

We don't drink the unrefined milk we get from our cows. We buy our milk from the stores. This is because the doctors wanted dad to not drink whole milk, and as I understand it there's germs in unrefined milk that would be unhealthy to consume.
JesseG July 2, 2005 02:01 (UTC)

The details on the speed of milking are - I would suggest, massively out of date. The majority of milking parlours would be herringbone or rotary parlours easily capable of milking 100+ cows per hour per person, for example on my dairy farm I milk approximatly 350 cows in 2 hours on my own. It's not unheard of for large parlours to be able to milk 400+ cows per hour. Matt 23:59, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes the times are massively out dated as here on our farm we milk 451 cows with 1 person and that only takes about 2 and a half hours.

We have a double 12 herringbone but a long distance from the barn to the parlor and it takes us about 8 hours to milk 400 cows. I have been told that this is quite long though.

It is inaccurate to say that antibiotics are widely fed to dairy cattle to mask the effects of BST (somatotropin). There are no antibiotics that are legal to feed to lactating dairy cows in the United States, with the exception of Rumensin. Rumensin is technically an antibiotic but has no use in therapy of any disease. It modifies the flora of the rumen (largest compartment of the stomach and the main fermentation vat where feed is converted to nutrients the cow can use) to increase feed efficiency and decrease methane production. Walter Guterbock, DVM

Can you tell us what usually happens to US dairy cows when they age past milk production? Do they then become human meat? This is related to ref desk question about bST in meat. alteripse 22:12, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Most old dairy cattle do become meat. I think about 55% of hamburger comes from retired dairy cattle. And bST in meat is not a hazard since it is naturally occurring even if not injected. ScottK 00:34, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Any protein hormone, like bST is digested in the human stomach, thus it poses no risk to human health.

dead link

Use the search term "OECD Agricultural Outlook Tables" on the site:http://www.oecd.org and 2005 now appears to be an xls rather than html file. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/55/44/32980897.xls I have not compared data to confirm this however.

The 2008 outlook is now available; OECD Agricultural Outlook: 2003-2008 http://www.oecd.org/document/9/0,3343,en_2649_201185_4486473_1_1_1_1,00.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by Strider22 (talk • contribs) 03:56, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

dairy farming - variations between countires

I would like to see more information regarding the fact that NZ has a majority pasture based system compared to its Northern Hemisphere counterparts which use a more supplement based system. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.211.87.230 (talk • contribs) .

Hmmm... Point taken, this has come and gone in the article a few times! Care is needed as it tends to sound as if the intention is to denigrate the production methods and herd mangement techniques of other countries. The casual viewer will likely get a negative impression of dairy products and production methods in general - what works well in one climate may not be the most suitable system for another part of the world . 4wd 21:38, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Climate is part of the reason, but different feed regimes are also influenced by land availability and/or land prices. Tbuchanan 06:32, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

For more applicable information about milking equipments and dairy farming visit: MilkAcademy

bST: reason for removing text

I removed the following recent addition because it seems unlikely:

Many farms in the US provide cows with a growth hormoneknown as "BST" or "rBGH" to increase milk production. This supplement works by stimulating the pituitary gland of the cow into the belief that it is springtime and precipitating the so-called "spring surge" of heightened production. A similar but less pronounced effect can be produced by setting barn lighting on timers to provide fourteen hours of light and ten hours of darkness, again convincing the cow that it is springtime.

My only claims to dairy expertise are having driven a milk truck for a summer, and a silver cup awarded to my great grandfather for best quality milk at the Western Washington Fair in 1927. However, I do know that mammalian somatotropin is produced by the pituitary gland and the target tissues are bones and other organs and tissues in the body, and that the pituitary is not site of regulation of circadian and annual physiologic rhythms (the hypothalamus is far more important). Somatotropin is closely related to prolactin, which stimulates mammalian breast cells to make milk. It seems highly unlikely that the mechanism by which bST amplifies milk production is by a direct action on the pituitary to induce a shift of an annual biorhythm. However, if you can produce a source, I will gladly admit my ignorance and thank you for the education. In absence of a source, this sounds like a "rural legend", to coin a phrase. alteripse 03:35, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

http://www.milkproduction.com/Library/Articles/Light.htm ? Vaarok 12:13, 15 May 2006 (EST)

Thanks for taking the trouble, but if you read your source carefully, it backs up my assertion, not the original paragraph. It says that both light and bST increase IGF1. It suggests light works through melatonin (the pineal gland), perhaps indirectly increasing endogenous pituitary bST production, while injected bST raises IGF1 levels by the same mechanism as pituitary bST. Do you follow the endocrinology?

• light > pineal > melatonin > pituitary > endogenous bST > IGF1 > got milk
• injected bST > IGF1 > got more milk

alteripse 04:46, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Question - Is BST actually a "Growth Hormone"? The term doesn't sound quite right. - 4wd , 25 May 2006

Sure. See our article on bovine somatotropin. alteripse 02:08, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Milk from BST treated cows is chemically indistinguishable from that of untreated cows. Having lived the last 20 years of my life on a dairy farm and having drank raw, unpasteurized, and at times, BST treated milk the entire time I can say that there is no danger to humans. This merely a ploy from ecoterrorists to confuse us and harm the industry. This is the reason Pennsylvania planned to ban "BST Free" labeling, there is NO way that the bottler or distributor can know this, the farmer is the only one who would know for sure, therefore labeling milk as BST free could be false advertising. Anyone who says otherwise has been lied to and confused.Martinac (talk) 19:46, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest that the following text be removed from the article:

"where approximately 22% of dairy cows are treated in this way"

The source is dated from 2003, and since 7 years time has elapsed since the publish date, this information cannot possibly be accurate.N.McGill 20:58, 27 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nancy.chenault (talk • contribs)

Never mind, I've updated the number and included an updated reference.N.McGill (talk) 21:38, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Robotic Milking

Does anyone have experience enough of the recent robotic milking sytems to put something together? Most of the problems seem to have been solved and there are many herds in teh UK, Holland, Denmark and more using two or three robotic milking crates. Running for several hours daily they can be effectively unattended, the machine will send text messgae to the farmer if aproblem arises. (4wd 22:27, 27 May 2006 (UTC))

Milk Inspectors

Grew up on a dairy farm (12 cows) so read this with fascination--one of the best articles I've seen, but, where's the discussion on milk inspection, trout in the milk and all that? Bharshaw 21:01, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, milk inspectors are a huge part of the operation (at least in America) we are inspected by local inspectors multiple times a year and an FDA rep comes and does random inspections of both the processing facilities and the farms at least once every three years although it is often more frequent. Milk regulation is some of the tightest regulation of any food industry (processed meat might be higher) so a small section is due on this subject, maybe even a new article. Martinac (talk) 19:29, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Average herd size

It is stated that the average herd size in New Zealand is 600 cows. I looked up herd size in New Zealand on google. NZ Large Herd Association gives 315 as the average size. Other sites give numbers of less than 315 and as low as 229. I doubt that the average size is 600 cows, and probably is at most around half that number. TheCorporation 07:14, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Median could be around 600. Jav43 22:31, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Numbers for the US also appear to be even more incorrect and the average herd size is around 100 cows [1]--TheCorporation 23:56, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

This is open to interpretation as the "Herd" could be taken to include young heifers not as yet in milk - up to about 30 months old. The way this is worded in tharticle does mention 'regional variation'. On balance I think most casual readers would be getting an inaccurate picture of the typical herd however --4wd 21:24, 27 July 2006 (UTC) 4wd

In dairy farming in NZ, when you refer to 'the herd', you are talking about milking cows only, not heifers or bulls. Also, in NZ a heifer calves at approx 2 years old and starts milking at the sate time as calving Tbuchanan 06:38, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, having cattle begin milking after calving is normal :). Having heifers calve at about 2 years is close to average in the US too, although the average is shifting toward 22 months (breeding around 13 months, depending on heifer weight at 13 months). Jav43 22:30, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

according to the new zealand dairy board, the average herd size was 236 in 2000, so i wouldnt say it has increased too much. family farms tend to have herds in the region of 180-300 cows, but large scale farms in my area have between 600 and 200 per farm, so i think we also need to make a distinction between the 2 before we give a herd size average.

To quote from http://www.dairyinsight.co.nz/careers/di-profile.php "The average herd size has more than doubled in the last twenty years to 322 cows in the 2005/06 season. 15.1% of all herds now have more than 500 cows." Sounds about right. Verve rat (talk) 09:36, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Average herd size in Vermont is 100. Can't distinguish from the statistics between family and corporate but there aren't too many corporate in the state.Student7 23:48, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

That's the same as the average for the US as a whole. Jav43 15:12, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The average herd size in new Zealand fluctuates between 230-315 cows this is the size of smaller farms traditionally family farms, But with investment in Dairying in this country allot of farms excceed this typically up to 1000 cows but some are 3 times this amount. to equate this to the area of the farm rough rule of 2.5 cows /ha(or 1cow(lactating) per acre).

The milking operation

Currently (17Aug06)this section seems bogged down in unecessary details of how a teat is squeezed. Could do with rewriting in a much less technical way. 4wd 23:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Why was statement on drinking unpasteurised milk deleted?

The following very sensible and mostly accurate paragraph (based on my own experience on a 120-head dairy farm which used a double-six herringbone parlor and had one of the first pipeline systems in Minnesota):

"Dairy farmers, their employees, and their families sometimes drink the unpastuerised milk produced on their farm. However, in some cases it is healthier to drink milk that has been prepared for consumer use by pastuerisation. This is because 'Raw' Milk contains bacteria and other organisms that eventually cause spoilage. Milk is routinely sampled on collection and any that fails tests for bacteria and antibiotic residue will be rejected by dairies for public consumption and even for industrial uses.

was deleted wholesale by an editor who supported the change simply with a POV claim that "drinking unprocessed milk is very UNCOMMON among dairy producers" or some such. Granted there are a few typos but dipping a (well-sanitized) bucket of milk out of the bulk tank is and has been a common practice on the dairy farms I am familiar with. It also stands to reason that most dairy producers in underdeveloped countries would drink their own unprocessed milk -- someone could do the math on the capacity of processing facilities around the world vs. the amount of production.

Granted the above is based largely on my own POV. However, this whole article is unsourced and unreferenced so it seems strange that one POV just replaced another without being challenged. This whole article could use a lot of work.ClearwaterAg 02:39, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you, perhaps this should be worked into the article again. Your viewpoint is a valid as any other on Wiki! 4wd 21:42, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

The reason there is a public fear of drinking unpasteurised milk is because of zoonoses such as Tuberculosis. The farmer and his family know if their herd is free of TB since the herd will have been regularly tested. The public have no such reassurance and the best precaution is pasteurisation. However, there is no better tasting milk than that straight from the cow. I'd squirt some straight into my hand and drink it during milking, providing my hands were clean. Brucellosis is another such zoonosis. Tomcrisp7 11:27, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

I think the paragraph could be rewritten and added again. Almost every farmer I know (including myself and family) drink their own raw milk and occasionally sell it to certain members of the public (generally friends who understand the potential consequences). TB and other milk borne sicknesses are very uncommon today (in developed countries). And I have never know anyone that has gotten sick off of raw milk.

Citing sources and cleanup

This article desperately needs its sources cited. I gave up adding because there are simply too many statements that require this. The text could also use a major cleaning, removing additional comments that are best meant as <!-- COMMENT --> so that editors, not readers, can see it. Seicer (talk) (contribs) 00:29, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Comments and citations needed

Apologies for the multiple comments inserted as italics. I have gone back and converted these to s with comments as suggested. Speaking as someone with a dairy farming background (120 head in a relatively modern setup for the mid-1970s) the article seems to have been written by contributors with a good knowledge of the business, but considerable work is needed to add citations for the facts they may have taken as basic knowledge, and to balance some of the bits on competition which appear to be geared to particular national perspectives.ClearwaterAg 02:39, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Milking Speed

A farmer with a modern milking installation such as a large herringbone or rotary parlour serving 16 or 24 cows at a time would be capable of milking around 300-500 cows per hour[citation needed]. Farmers in New Zealand aim to milk the whole herd in under two hours twice a day[citation needed] so that the animals get the maximum time in their pasture. Farmers in other countries usually have smaller plants and 150–300 per hour is more likely.

I think these figures are wrong, but I don't have cites available. Could someone investigate this? (I happen to know that a double-16 parallel parlor (serving 32 cows) will milk about 150 cows/hour max (12 min per side). 300-500 cows per hour is a ridiculous figure.) Also, the part about New Zealand milking a herd in under two hours neglects two considerations: a) a farm with multiple herd groups and b) the size of the herd. Without explaining those points, that figure is very fuzzy. Thoughts? Jav43 19:19, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Given that these figures are not attributed to any source, I'd just go ahead and delete them outright if you think they're dubious. - Schneelocke 20:34, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

I deleted them and tried to provide some enhanced explanation. Jav43 18:23, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Not to accurate in the 1st paragraph. A large herring bone shed would be 50-110 per side(swingover) Double ups not so common. Rotaries range from 32-200 bails. Rough rule of thumb with milking in NZ 10% of the herd per side with herringbones and 10% per roatation with rotaries, especially with smaller rotaries the larger ones can have a lower %/rotation. One labour unit per 30-40 set of cups is normal. Milking speed should be around 11 min/side herringbone or / rotation, rotary. Herds in Nz are milked within 2hrs as the cows have to have time to get to pasture eat and digest feed. Fonterra the lagest buyer of nz raw milk expects that milking times to be completed by 7.30 am and 6.30pm for collection and tempatures are approperate for transport. www.fonterra.com Also milking times are fast to keep labour units down, and cows usually do not eat in the cowshed but meal feeders are getting more common. — Preceding unsigned comment added by A nz Farmer (talk • contribs) 21:35, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Economics

It would be interesting to have some more detail on the economics of dairy farming. I recently heard [2][3] that the wholesale and retail prices of milk are federally regulated in the United States. This is rather unusual for an American consumer good, and I doubt most people realize it, so it would be interesting to explain. -- Beland 05:00, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

It's correct that US milk prices are federally regulated. The USDA site: http://www.ams.usda.gov/dairy/orders.htm Jav43 16:28, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

We need more on economics (as well as inspections. See comment above in another section). These would be country specific. For example, in the US futures are 50% higher for August 2007 (as of May)($18+/hundred) than they have been over the past 12 years ($12/hundred). This is for "Class III" milk which I can't explain nor can Wikipedia at this juncture. All country specific to the US.Student7 02:57, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

"Gee I wish the US would convert to metric would be easier to understand"(keep up with the rest of the world) In the last week Fonterra anounced it final payout for the 2010/2011(the Fonterra finacial year goes from the 1st June to 31st may) The milk payout anounced is NZ$8.25/kgms(kilo of milksoild) milk soilds is made up of the amount of fat + protein in the milk. In NZ per cow production is roughly around 300kg-360kgms. Average herd size say 250 cows doing 300kgms = 75000kgms x $8.25= gross$618750 rough rule of thumb 50% should be cost including labour but not interest on borrowings. The farm should net around $300,000 in today's exchange rate around US$234,000. New Zealand milk price is set by world supply and demand there are not any subcidies in any form from the government. As for the above mentioned Class III milk??? New Zealand milk is graded every time it is picked up. The price mentioned in this paragraph is for premium milk only. If you supply is of a lesser grade you will get penilised or even fined $20,000 or more per infringement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by A nz Farmer (talk • contribs) 22:16, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Data on milk production, import and export

1. REDIRECT [A good reference for dairy production data (including import, consumption and export) is the USDA ERS at http://www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/psdDownload.aspx It takes a bit of playing around with exel and pivot tables to extract it, but it's all there. New Zealand seems indeed to be the largest exporter (according to that data). However, depending on how one converts dry milk powder into liquid milk equivalents the EU25 could actually be a larger exporter. Didn't do the math.]

New Zealand (fonterra) is the largest exporter of Dairy products in the world. Fonterra which is a co-op is owned by it NZ suppliers( share rate stipulated a $4.52/share supplier must hold 1 share per kgms produced)www.fonterra.com. Fonterra also ownes and or opperates 60% of Australia's production. New Zealand only consumes +/-5% of its milk production 95% is exported — Preceding unsigned comment added by A nz Farmer (talk • contribs) 22:30, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

First Paragraph

"Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or more properly, an animal husbandry enterprise, raising female cattle, goats, or other lactating animals for long-term production of milk, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale. Most dairy farms sell the male calves born by their cows, usually for veal production, or 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 season. Additional dietary supplements are added to the feed to increase quality milk production"

Why during the bold scentence does it specifically highlight on a dairy farm with cows when it was previously talking about dairy farms in generall, it seems that "calves" and Bul calf would be better replaced with more generic terms (e.g. Male animal)as should veal so that it is clear that this article is about dairy farming in generall and not just with cows 79.67.52.190 19:17, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

List of Countries

I just thought I'd point out, before everyone becomes involved in their respective countries' "league table positions", that this is simply a reproduction of OECD figures for the moment, and that I do realise that the EU cannot take up 3 places, let alone the first two, but I do intend to expand on EU production, which should sort this out. Tom 15:44, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Missing species?

This article has no mention of any animal other than cow. I believe a large part of the World's population gets their milk from Goats and Sheep and Water buffalo are not unheard of, even in the West.--Doug.^{(talk • contribs)} 04:33, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

The article dairy mentions quote unquote "from goats or cows, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses, or camels" --Cynops3 (talk) 14:39, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Is "dairy farm" hatnote necessary?

The following hatnote was recently added: '"Dairy farm" redirects here. For the retail company in Asia, see Dairy Farm International Holdings.' I deleted it; subsequently re-added by JHunterJ. Part of my confusion was that dairy farm goes to this article and dariy Farm (note the capital F) goes to the Dairy Farm International article. Also, the hatnote unnecessarily highlights Dairy Farm International for a rather minor reason. JHunterJ refered to WP:HN as reason for adding, but WP:HN seems to argue against. Mirboj (talk) 09:43, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Dairy farm redirects here, and people looking for Dairy Farm may not type the capital F, so WP:HN argues for it: "{{Redirect}} or a related template can be used when an unambiguous article name is redirected to from an ambiguous term". The hatnotes are an alternative to the situation I found: Dairy farm and Dairy Farm redirecting to Dairy farm (disambiguation), so that nobody would reach this page who didn't explicitly click on the link from the dab page. I felt that little-f Dairy farm should redirect here instead. -- JHunterJ (talk) 12:29, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Moving tables from the article "Milk"

Please feel free to add the following tables to the article if appropriate. --Phenylalanine (talk) 02:23, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Top Ten Buffalo Milk Producers — 2005
Country	Production (Int $1000)	Footnote	Production (MT)	Footnote
India	25,344,630	C	50,740,000	F
Pakistan	9,840,150	C	19,700,000
People's Republic of China	1,373,625	C	2,750,000	F
Egypt	1,148,850	C	2,300,000	F
Nepal	446,848	C	894,591
Iran	117,382	C	235,000	F
Italy	83,441	C	167,050	F
Myanmar	61,938	C	124,000	F
Turkey	23,976	C	48,000	F
Vietnam	15,484	C	31,000	F
No symbol = official figure,F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial figure, C = Calculated figure; Production in Int $1000 have been calculated based on 1999-2001 international prices Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Devision

Top Ten Cow Milk Producers — 2005
Country	Production (Int $1000)	Footnote	Production (MT)	Footnote
United States	21,315,090	C	80,150,000
India	10,238,690	C	38,500,000	*
Russia	8,137,764	C	30,600,000	*
Greece	7,339,944	C	27,600,000	F
France	6,723,495	C	25,282,000	*
People's Republic of China	6,435,748	C	24,530,080	F
Brazil	6,201,721	C	23,320,000	F
New Zealand	3,889,372	C	14,625,000	*
United Kingdom	3,876,608	C	14,577,000
Ukraine	3,586,068	C	13,484,500	*
No symbol = official figure,F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial figure, C = Calculated figure; Production in Int $1000 have been calculated based on 1999-2001 international prices Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Devision

Top Ten Goat Milk Producers — 2005
Country	Production (Int $1000)	Footnote	Production (MT)	Footnote
India	813,888	C	2,700,000	*
Bangladesh	426,839	C	1,416,000	F
Sudan	390,365	C	1,295,000	F
Pakistan	198,950	C	660,000
France	176,945	C	587,000
Greece	149,213	C	495,000	F
Spain	40,170	C	465,000	F
Iran	110,026	C	365,000	F
Ukraine	87,418	C	290,000	*
Russia	78,073	C	259,000	*
No symbol = official figure,F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial figure, C = Calculated figure; Production in Int $1000 have been calculated based on 1999-2001 international prices Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Devision

Note: The above tables are either outdated, or (according to the given sources, at least) partly incorrect.

Anyway, I've updated the two tables (global production, and EU production) that are present in the article using the latest FAO data for 2009. --:bdk: 03:46, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

This article really needs some images and video

This article is okay but it is way too text-heavy. My father still (STILL) milks a 35-cow dairy in northwest Wisconsin using four milkers and a pipeline in a stanchion barn, so I'll see about uploading some pictures and video of the pipeline milking process.

Also he's got the old Surge bucket milker in storage, plus a mothballed Surge vacuum pump, but all the rubber is cracked and rotten by now. Perhaps I can talk him into getting it working again, if I buy all the new rubber bits for the system.

Maybe I could get pictures and video of a modern parlor as well, from some farming cousins.

DMahalko (talk) 00:16, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

NPOV

This article is NPOV because it is written from the assumption (false) that dairy farming is dairy cow farming. It overlooks other animals kept for milk, particularly goats and sheep. --Una Smith (talk) 20:20, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

That's already covered by the {{worldwide}} tag. {{NPOV}} is primarily meant for situations where an opinion is being over- or under-represented, rather than where and article is simply missing detail. (Also, "NPOV" stands for "neutral point of view", which is what we're looking for. We want articles to be "NPOV".) Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 17:02, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

I've re-tagged with a more specific cleanup template. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 17:05, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Organization

The new addition of health was good. It did, however, point up the need for some kind of reorganization. We're getting too many separate subtitles at the same level in no particular sequence. Student7 (talk) 23:08, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

How about some references?

Blcknd and Vaarok - can you folks please add references for the new material which you've inserted? This article is already short of refs and adding a huge section about refrigeration without any references is just making this worse and probably WP:UNDUE as well. Thanks Bob98133 (talk) 16:35, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Deleted from the animal waste section: "However, it should be noted that while these dairies are concentrated, the average productivity of dairy cows more than doubled between 1950 and 1980. The national dairy herd also more than halved in the same time due to the increased efficiency and productivity of the cattle used, suggesting objections are based more on emotional than rational grounds. " The ref appears to support the fact that dairy cows are more productive, which might fit somewhere else in the article, but doesn't tie into the waste section. The suggested inference appears to be less cows equals less waste, which isn't supported by the ref. An alternative conclusion could be that less cows produce the same amount of milk by eating more thus producing the same amount of waste. Mirboj (talk) 15:04, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

For the record, each cow produces the same total waste per cow as it did in 1950. There are half the cows. Therefore half the total waste. They produce at least twice as much milk per cow (on the same amount of food per cow) as their predecessors thus raising the total supply of milk. In the meantime, environmentalists are about ten times more sensitive, and therefore.... (ah well). Student7 (talk) 01:58, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Are there any references for these facts, i.e that today's cows are able to produce more milk without producing more waste per cow than their '50s predecessors? Mirboj (talk) 14:36, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

I suppose you are right about needing a ref. But these are the same cattle, same species, etc. Mostly Holsteins, or related in the US. Just better milk producers through selection. They can only eat so much, grow so big, etc. Can't breed them any hungrier!  :) Student7 (talk) 16:53, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Interesting line of thought, might see what I can dig up when I get a chance with regard to the improvements and changes in dairy cows.Mirboj (talk) 14:43, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

References

Is a section on the health effects of dairy relevant to this Wiki article?

This article is about how dairy is produced. Look at the Wiki page. You have a section on how cows are milked, management of the herds and worldwide prevalance. A person has cut and pasted a section regarding the health effects of dairy and it doesn't appear there was any thought process regarding whether this is relevant to this page. Whether or not dairy is healthy or not, doesn't change the fact that it is currently being produced. The health effects of dairy seems to be out of the scope of the page and since there is a page on Dairy already, I have removed this section.DivaNtrainin (talk) 04:14, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

"Dairy farming" vs "Dairy" page: suggest redirect

The article "Dairy" is the same article, only better organized and well-written.

What is the purpose of this "Dairy farming" article?

Should we have a separate "Dairy farming" article at all? I am going to suggest a redirect. --AslanEntropy (talk) 02:01, 28 December 2013 (UTC)

Improper redirect

Suggesting it is one thing, doing it without any discussion on the same day you suggested it will not fly. Do not redirect without much discussion over some time. That is the way it supposed to be done. And now that it has been undone and challenged it most definitely needs to be done.

Oppose Redirect These two articles should remain separate and distinct. One should be about facilities that refine dairy products and the dairy farm shold be about the production of milk by bovines, not camels, etc. 208.54.40.188 (talk) 05:15, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Statistical Problem

There's inconsistent statistics for US dairy--first the US is credited with 65,000 dairy farms, then Wisconsin is claimed to have 78,000 dairy farms. I'd suggest using the same source for both, or better still stats for the top ten states, not just WI.Bill Harshaw (talk) 12:10, 22 July 2015 (UTC)

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Orphaned references in Dairy farming

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Dairy farming's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "wilson":

• From History of agriculture: Wilson, Gilbert (1917). Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation. Dodo Press. pp. 25 and passim. ISBN 978-1409942337.
• From Pasteurization: Wilson, G. S. (1943), "The Pasteurization of Milk", British Medical Journal, 1 (4286): 261, doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4286.261, PMC 2282302, PMID 20784713
• From Donkey: Grubb, P. (2005). "Order Perissodactyla". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 629–630. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 15:49, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

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bias in article

the article seems written from the point of view is dairy producers. it doesn't cite scholarship in animal studies, such as recent work by Gabriel Rosenberg, Samantha Pergadia, and others Breakupalbum (talk) 05:59, 31 July 2023 (UTC)