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Archive 1

Cows and bulls

It says 'cows are unique in their ability to produce milk.' Obviously I am interpreting this wrong... --Ihope127 7 July 2005 19:39 (UTC)

  • I think it makes sense in the context "Dairy cattle are distinguised by gender at birth. Cows are unique in their ability to produce milk, and thus heifers, young cows, are generally considered more valuable than bulls" Guerberj 18:03, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

Growing up on the farm, one thing my dad liked about artifical insemination was that it eliminated the need to keep a bull on the farm, especially considering how dangerous bulls can be.
JesseG 00:55, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Colostrum

Colostrum is unfit for human consumption? I think not. In Norway, we use it for a dessert called råmjølkspudding (lit. "raw milk pudding"). The first milk is very very thick, so it's not usable as milk, which may be what the author meant. Kjetilho 09:02, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Butchering

"At death, the cow is butchered and sold for its meat." - Surely the death of the cow is caused by the butchering? Barnaby dawson 18:42, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, in most cases. The farmer does not wait until the cow/bull dies in the cowshed, but instead it is culled and brought to the slaughterhouse. In case the animal dies unexpectedly, it goes to the rendering. Gbaor 12:32, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

What is a perennial cow?

The article states that some farmers will, "settle for the lower production rate of perennial cows". What is a perennial cow? Following the numbers in the article, a cow would have to be mated 10 days after giving birth to start milking over again without a break at the end of the previous cycle. Is that what it means? Or do they just keeping milking and milking for years without the animal giving birth again? How does that work? I don't think a woman can do it. Conversely, what do they do to make a cow go dry? Ravenhurst 21:01, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

This ("perennial cow") refers to cows that continue being milked without having another calf. Cows can be milked for years without the animal giving birth again. It is common for cows (especially cows with difficulty conceiving) to be milked for more than two years before milk production decreases to the point that it is no longer profitable to keep the cow. (Note that the cow can do this because the cow is completely drained of milk several times a day, thus encouraging continuing milk production. A cow would dry earlier if the cow were to only produce sufficient milk to feed a calf - particularly after the calf begins consuming ruffages.) You can force a cow to go dry simply by no longer milking her. Jav43 19:25, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

"...milked for more than two years before milk production decreases to the point that it is no longer profitable to keep the cow. ..." Also note that this is not the common (traditional) policy of dairy cattle breeding. The more common situation is more like this:

After giving calving the cow is milked 2 times per day (the whole period is called "lactation" with standard length 305 days) . On the 40th day of lactation the cow is artificially inseminated and hopefully remains pregnant. The exact day of insemination may vary. Approx. 60 days before planned second calving the cow is dried to allow her to prepare herself for this calving. At this point most of the nutrients consumed by the cow goes to rapidly growing fetus. The cow calves for the second time. Good (but unofficial) indicator of reproduction performance for cows is one calf per year . Cows with bad fertility indicators are most often culled and replaced with cows/heifers that could do the job.

I just noticed that similar text is written in the article itself, but now I save this, if it is already written :). Gbaor 12:21, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi. My name is Louissa and I am doing a project in school about dairy cattle and cows. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.66.254.231 (talk) 19:43, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Some information about the percentage of dairy producing cattle vs cattle which are used only for meat would be very useful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.46.252.136 (talk) 14:37, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Cow lifespan

Please read ref before removing properly referenced content. The reference cited for a cow's natural lifespan [1] states in the 10th ph "The natural lifespan of a cow is approximately twenty-five years. On average, commercially-raised dairy cows are slaughtered for beef within five to six years." It appears that the deletion of this material by Cheesebaron was based on thin air, not checking the reference. I have reverted since Cheesebaron's revert was based on misreading the source. Perhaps there is a better reference for this, but keep in mind that dairy cow Big Bertha died at age 48 in 1993,[2] so 25 is not unreasonable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bob98133 (talk • contribs) 20:41, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS)

The reference provided by CheeseBaron for Animal Health Monitoring & Surveillance [3] lists studies but provides no information about the purpose of this department. This reference [4] states the purpose which is "The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Program Unit conducts national studies on the health and health management of United States domestic livestock and poultry populations." That is very different than monitoring practises at dairy farms, which implies that they are regulating the practise, while in reality it appears that they are studying and reporting about it. Bob98133 (talk) 17:33, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

NAHMS was initiated by the USDA to provide current and accurate information on specific agricultural industries. [1] Much of the information collected is through surveys of current farm practices. This information is collected to help those industries. The other reference (^ [ http://www.insidedairyproduction.com/wst_page2.html Dairy Industry Report] ) is clearly put out by an advocacy group (pushing a particle point of view). The NAHMS information is based on real science. —Preceding unsigned comment added by CheeseBaron (talk • contribs) 19:48, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I agree that the insidedairyproduction.com reference should be replaced with a better one. However, as I recall, the original statement about NAHMS was that they monitored dairy cattle which implies that they were involved in regulating or overseeing dairy cattle. They do not appear to be. They study it by conducting surveys. How do surveys affect the dairy cattle who were studied? Not at all, I think. So NAHMS finds trends and gathers statistics that may help the dairy industry, but have little to do with Dairy cattle - the topic of this article. While they are a good source about dairy agricultural trends, their use as a source here is not of much value. Bob98133 (talk) 02:05, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
  1. ^ http://nahms.aphis.usda.gov/about.htm

Notice of requested move

Currently, Cow redirects to Cattle (not Dairy cattle), and the disambiguation page is Cow (disambiguation). A request to move the disambiguation page to Cow is being discussed now on Talk:Cow (disambiguation). --Una Smith (talk) 14:38, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Johne's claim

This claim is not verified, is somewhat speculative and probably has little to do with this article. Delete? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.58.197.89 (talk) 04:44, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

The text says "may" which is supported by the reference. I see no reason to remove it. Bob98133 (talk) 17:47, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

Can we go metric?

Can we convert the units used in the article to SI units (metric)?

The United States dairy herd produced 185 billion pounds of milk ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.36.179.50 (talk) 01:51, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Ridiculous claim

"In the first week of life, a calf can consume around 2-4 liters of milk per day depending upon breed and size."

Thats a ridiculous claim. A human baby which is 1/20 the size of a calf can drink almost that much.Eregli bob (talk) 10:02, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

wow what size of baby would that be to cosume 2-4 litres of milk/day? skyhighmare, 09.00pm 14/feb/2011, Scot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.84.123.207 (talk) 21:40, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Emotional Welfare of Dairy Cattle

I'd be interested in information on the living conditions/emotional welfare of dairy cows. --Ott0 (talk) 01:35, 28 May 2012 (UTC)

Ethical issues

I would like to see an impartial discussion on the ethical issues surrounding dairy farming. Speak with some philosophers, biologists, psychologists etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.188.14.114 (talk) 06:35, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Merge?

111.69.198.191 recently attempted to "delete" the contents of this article, and redirect to Cattle, under the reasoning:

"Deleted. This is a redundant with the superior cattle article and obviously being used to promote an animal rights message."

As I see no discussion of such changes (and no attempt to merge the contents, and only one other edit by this IP), I've reverted. However, as it seems it was two days before anyone noticed an IP removing a 7-year-old 20+ kilobyte article, it's possible I've missed the discussion. If such a discussion exists, please post it clearly on the relevant talk pages. Elsewise, please discuss (below, with a notice @ Talk:Cattle) before making such major edits. I personally have no interest or opinion on the matter, although a cursory glance suggests some redundancy and that a proper merge is definitely possible. Mysterious Whisper (SHOUT) 18:55, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

This article needs work, but does not fit as a merge, there are other spinoff articles from cattle, which is a long overview article; this one is more specific. I don't see a particular animal rights bias either, just some need for better writing and general cleanup. Montanabw(talk) 20:15, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

2013

Third paragraph under "Calf" section seems suspect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.61.233.81 (talk) 00:45, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Clarify? Montanabw(talk) 18:53, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Hormone Use

Could we have more detail about the use of hormones or other chemicals used medicinally in dairy (and beef) cattle? At present, the article does appear slightly USA centric. In the UK for instance, this is not allowed, and one of the arguments I see again and again about avoiding dairy products is the use of hormones and antibiotics. In the UK, we have very strict rules about what can and can't be used on cattle, and also what is allowed to be done to and come through in the milk. I appreciate that this could be quite a varied section, but TBH different countries have quite varied rules.94.9.53.242 (talk) 09:17, 9 January 2014 (UTC)Lance Tyrell

I can see the benefits of adding this material. However, we need good footnotes and source materials for this. IF you can find a few, put them here at talk and we might be able to incorporate them into the article. Do read WP:RS and [{WP:MEDRS]] first, so you can see what we need. Montanabw(talk) 17:04, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Please see Dairy Cattle Genetics: usable or spam?

A recently created article: Dairy Cattle Genetics, is basically a commercial for a cattle semen company which i choose not to name. Is there anything worth keeping and redirecting, or should the whole article be nominated for deletion? --Animalparty-- (talk) 04:08, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Requested move 21 June 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved, with valid oppose comments not countered. (non-admin closure) — Andy W. (talk · ctb) 04:33, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

Dairy cattle → Dairy cows – "Cattle" include both (female) cows and (male) bulls. However, for obvious reasons, only (female) cows are held for milking.
While the term "dairy cattle", cattle etymologically referring to someone's property, may still be widespread, it is unnecessarily imprecise, given that Google Ngram has "dairy cows" and "dairy cattle" at about the same level, with "dairy cows" surpassing "dairy cattle" in the 1990s, and a regular Google search has "dairy+cows"+-wikipedia "Dairy cows" ahead of "dairy+cattle"+-wikipedia "Dairy cattle" as well. So the more precise title meets WP:COMMONNAME. PanchoS (talk) 02:29, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

  • Oppose. Dairy cattle breeds have both male and female members – there wouldn't be any milk if they didn't, or indeed any breed. The current title is a precise description of the topic. It isn't broken, there's no need to mend it. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 11:36, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
  • Oppose. As Justlettersandnumbers says, there are male members of the breeds specialized for dairy production. This article does briefly mention bulls. Plantdrew (talk) 17:19, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

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610 days + 60 days = 1 year. !?

"...about 610 days after calving, the cow is 'dried off', and milking ceases. About sixty days later, one year after the birth of her previous calf, a cow will calve again."

This does not add up, literally. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7D:31B8:F100:B5F9:7440:C153:CCC9 (talk) 20:46, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

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Herds

Under "Management" it say "dairy cows may be found in dairy farms or herds". Surely a cow is in a herd wherever it is found, in a dairy farm or off of it (provided you have more than one). A dairy farm keeps a herd of cows, sometimes several, sometimes kept in barn, sometimes let out to pasture. I'm nott even sure what the OP is trying to say; presumably they mean some dairy cattle are kept on open ranges like beef cattle, but I cannot imagine why anyone would do this, since obviously they couldn't be milked 2-3 times a day and would be basically going to waste. Perhaps this is just a clumsy way of saying "dairy cows may be found either in a cow barn or out to pasture on a dairy farm". In all cases, a herd is a herd, wherever it is kept.

64.223.107.232 (talk) 21:02, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

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