While the dairy industry is one of the United States' top agricultural industries, the life of a dairy farmer is certainly not all rainbows and butterflies. In fact, there are many issues with which dairy farmers must contend. Here are just a few issues that you might have to handle if you were a dairy farmer.
Waste production is an issue and dairy cows are no exception as all animals produce waste. Large waste pits or lagoons are these structures built and where the cow waste is typically stored. The waste stored can become hard and solid but it is best to have this in liquefied form, thus special manure treatment is also often needed. A solid sludge layer can form on the bottom of the waste pits and lagoons if the waste is poorly treated. Attracting more flies and also odor and foaming are the results when a hard top crust forms.
In preventing these problems, the dairy farmers treat the waste with chemicals. In these days however, there are already some natural products used as agricultural waste treatments. These are the manure digesters called Activator Plus, a manure digester that eats away and liquefy the top crust in the pits. There is also Agra Sphere and also Lagoon Agra Sphere, the ready to use biodegradable spheres that are just tossed into the lagoons and pits, and these eats away the sludge and also prevent the formation of top crust. These are manure treatment products that are not containing chemicals but only special bacteria that deal with the animal waste.
Individual cows also can have a host of problems. One problem that sometimes occurs is infertility. In order to produce milk, a cow must constantly be producing calves. When a cow cannot become pregnant, this animal also can no longer be used to produce milk. Therefore the cow will be culled, which means to be separated from the herd. Often these animals then are used as a source of beef.
There is also mastitis, a common problem also encountered in dairy cows. This problem is caused by a mammary gland infection and can also be fatal. The cows are often culled in this situation and treated with antibiotics until there is no more infection and after all antibiotic traces are gone, the milk produced are then suitable again for the market.
One thing greatly taken into consideration is the amount of milk produced by a cow each day. Six gallons of milk each day is the average milk production of each cow. A cow may be culled if the milk production is already little. Lower milk production can however lead to better cow longevity, and there are studies to show this. A dairy cow may live longer and thus produce more in a longer time, compared to a cow producing seven gallons of milk a day if you are receiving only four gallons of milk a day from this cow. There are also studies showing that cows roaming in pastures and also playing music while lactating, can improve production of milk, and this is because stress in cows is related to milk production.
Waste production is an issue and dairy cows are no exception as all animals produce waste. Large waste pits or lagoons are these structures built and where the cow waste is typically stored. The waste stored can become hard and solid but it is best to have this in liquefied form, thus special manure treatment is also often needed. A solid sludge layer can form on the bottom of the waste pits and lagoons if the waste is poorly treated. Attracting more flies and also odor and foaming are the results when a hard top crust forms.
In preventing these problems, the dairy farmers treat the waste with chemicals. In these days however, there are already some natural products used as agricultural waste treatments. These are the manure digesters called Activator Plus, a manure digester that eats away and liquefy the top crust in the pits. There is also Agra Sphere and also Lagoon Agra Sphere, the ready to use biodegradable spheres that are just tossed into the lagoons and pits, and these eats away the sludge and also prevent the formation of top crust. These are manure treatment products that are not containing chemicals but only special bacteria that deal with the animal waste.
Individual cows also can have a host of problems. One problem that sometimes occurs is infertility. In order to produce milk, a cow must constantly be producing calves. When a cow cannot become pregnant, this animal also can no longer be used to produce milk. Therefore the cow will be culled, which means to be separated from the herd. Often these animals then are used as a source of beef.
There is also mastitis, a common problem also encountered in dairy cows. This problem is caused by a mammary gland infection and can also be fatal. The cows are often culled in this situation and treated with antibiotics until there is no more infection and after all antibiotic traces are gone, the milk produced are then suitable again for the market.
One thing greatly taken into consideration is the amount of milk produced by a cow each day. Six gallons of milk each day is the average milk production of each cow. A cow may be culled if the milk production is already little. Lower milk production can however lead to better cow longevity, and there are studies to show this. A dairy cow may live longer and thus produce more in a longer time, compared to a cow producing seven gallons of milk a day if you are receiving only four gallons of milk a day from this cow. There are also studies showing that cows roaming in pastures and also playing music while lactating, can improve production of milk, and this is because stress in cows is related to milk production.
About the Author:
Lianne Derocco likes blogging about agricultural issues. For further information about agricultural waste solutions, please check out the BioverseAG.com website now or click here.
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