How many jin of milk does a dairy cow usually produce per day, why can it keep producing milk, and what are the milking methods?
Milk is one of the oldest natural beverages, known as “white blood,” and is squeezed from female dairy cows. In different countries, milk is also graded differently. So how many jin of milk does a dairy cow usually produce per day? Why can it keep producing milk? What are the milking methods?
How many jin of milk does a dairy cow usually produce per day?
1. The Holstein cow's milk production tops all dairy cattle breeds. The average milk production of an ordinary cow is 7500-8500 kg, with a milk fat percentage of 3.5%-3.8%.
2. In 1979, the American Dairy Cattle Improvement Association registered 128,570 head with an average milk production of 10790 kg and a milk fat percentage of 3.64%.
3. In 1980, 439 cows at the Louan Farm in California, USA, had an average milk production of 10790 kg, with a milk fat percentage of 3.5%. This was the highest-producing Holstein herd in the United States. 4. The world individual milk production record holder is also an American Holstein cow, which produced 32375.5 kg of milk in 365 days, averaging 88.7 kg per day. Another cow produced a total of 27900 kg of milk in 365 days, with a milk fat percentage of 4.1%.
5. The record holder for the highest lifetime milk production in the world -- American cow No. 289 -- had a lifetime milk production of 189000 kg, an average milk fat percentage of 3.14%, and a total lactation period of 4796 days.
6. According to industry insiders, dairy cows generally have three stages of milk production each year, namely the dry period, the peak period and the low-milk period. The dry period is generally about 90 days, occurring before the cow gives birth; the peak milk production period generally lasts only a bit more than 3 months, occurring after the cow gives birth; the rest of the time is the low-milk period. Milk production varies across different periods: during the dry period there is no milk production at all; during the peak milk production period, a dairy cow generally produces more than 25 kg of milk per day, and a better cow can produce around 40 kg; the low-milk period lasts relatively long, during which a dairy cow generally produces between 5 kg and 20 kg of milk per day.
Why can dairy cows keep producing milk?
1. Dairy cows give birth continuously. There is no species that produces milk without giving birth; milk production is meant for the next generation to drink. After a young female cow reaches sexual maturity, it is impregnated through artificial insemination (dairy farms buy tubes of semen, like ballpoint pen refills, from breeding bull stations and inject it into the vagina with an insemination gun). After giving birth to a calf, it begins to produce milk, and the lactation period is very long, until it is artificially inseminated again, becomes pregnant, gives birth and produces milk again.
2. After birth, the calf cannot drink its mother's milk. Except for young bulls kept as breeding bulls, young bulls are basically killed and made into various biochemical or industrial products, while young female cows are kept to continue producing milk. The milk the calves drink comes from cows that are sick or whose milk is poor, collected in buckets, mixed with feed and fed to them.
What are the milking methods for dairy cows?
1. Washing and massaging the udder: first wash the udder with warm water at 40-50°C. Use the one-side massage method and the separate massage method respectively to massage the udder.
2. Manual milking technique: use the compression method (fist-grip method) for milking, requiring 80-120 compressions per minute. The entire milking process is required to be completed within 5-8 min.
3. Machine milking: take the milking claw with teat cups off the milk can, hold the four tubes and the milk delivery tube on the milking claw with the other hand, then open the inlet switch on the milk can, and quickly put the teat cups onto the teats one by one, and adjust the pulsator frequency to between 40-60 times/min, then start the machine for milking.
During the milking process, the milk flow can be observed through the sight glass tube on the milker. If there is no milk flow passing through, or the udder has already become soft, the switch on the milking bucket or the vacuum conduit should be closed. After each milking is completed, all parts that the milk passes through should be cleaned promptly.