A whole heap'a !!

[michaeljohnson]

I just saw on our television program called (countryfile) where one of the program presenters visited a farm in the USA which is considered the largest dairy farm there is,with the hope of setting up a similar one in over here in the UK.

Apparently they keep 32,000 dairy cows on this farm-that's a hell of a lot of cows to deal; with-I have never heard of such a large amount of cows on one single farm before, feeding and milking time must be well organized to handle that amount of cows in one go.

Then I got to thinking- how much manure would 32,000 cows produce in a day, and how on earth would they dispose of it- it must amount to several hundred tons per day !!.

If that was in the UK it would work out at about ten free bags per person on a weekly basis to dig into their patch ;D

Apparently a couple of english farmers are thinking of having a go at it on a similar scale but with only about 22,000 cows per farm-it is almost unthinkable in this country,but apparently also they have had an offer from the electricity companies to make electric power and gas from the fermented dung and pump it back into the national grid at a price suitable to both parties.

[garnetmoth]

near to Amarillo Texas smells like that much poop. (no offense meant to Amarillo, its just overwhelming!)

[bluelacedredhead]

Michael, that's a lot of weight to deal with too. I'd be afraid that the Island Formerly Known as England, Scotland and Wales will sink into the Atlantic under a load like that.

[wildseed57]

That many cows would have a heavy carbon footprint in one spot, just taking care of them would require several work teams working in shifts that would work 24 hours a day 7 days a week which would include clean up crews working in shifts also. cows pass a lot of gas which would cause a large amount of green house gasses going into the atmosphere. They would have to have a area that they could dump manure in so that it could be covered and a piping system set up to trap and bleed off all the methane. That would be just a part of the operation as they would have to have feed brought in and compost taken from the area that is used to produce methane so that it would be continuing to produce methane around the clock and they would need several big generators that would be hooked up to another system to transfer the electricity. The whole thing would be a giant factory with cows going in a big circle and trucks of various types coming and going 24-7 also. I would say that they would not be the happy cows you see on TV. I can't think of a less humane system to put animals in. Also you would be able to smell the place miles before you got there. I hope that they don't start setting up mega pig farms as it would really stink up the place, although I have seen some pretty big set ups already, not a place I would choose to work.
George W.

[michaeljohnson]

Apparently the giant dairy farm in question is situated in the state of Wisconsin, and when I watched the program all the cows came and went daily on a giant moving carousel which was about fifty yards across they walked into it of their own accord to be milked twice a day, and then left of their own accord once they had been drained-so to speak as they reached the end of the circle. talk about well trained cows!!

The part I did not like though was that the cows were farmed on a battery farm cow system-after they had left the carousel they returned to their stalls-( all of their own accord) and then stuck their heads through a couple of metal bars and fed all day on the forage feed which looked like dried hay with other bulking agents added, and according to the farm owner all the cows are couch potatoes and lay down on the bedding for most of the rest of the day.

I still find it hard to imagine a bunch of 32,000 cows all in one place, most of the farms in the UK have around a 100 or less on each farm,

[flowerpower]

My little Dutch barn was built around 1890. It can hold 9 cows and there is one stall for the work horse or ox. In 1964 they milked here. There were 9 cows plus calfs in the summer. The dairy farms here have 100-200 usually. Cows here are in the pasture as long as possible. And I see alot of the farmers using the manure as fertilizer in the corn patches.

I bet those industrial farms get some HUGE tax breaks for them to make a profit. Because for the family farmer in NY, it costs more to feed the cows than they make on the milk. Yet milk is 5 dollars a gallon here. Why? The stupid farm is less than 2 miles away. What my county needed was a pasteurization plant. What we are getting is an indoor fish farm.

[bluelacedredhead]

An Indoor Fish Farm?
FP, you know this is to boost Tourism $$ don't you? People from NYC don't want to see milk being pasteurized. They watch Bob Izumi in the TV and now they can visit the Reel world and be just like him, without getting wet, lololol

[wildseed57]

I have a long time friend that is a dairy farmer on a 300 Acers his family run farm is over a hundred years old, he took over the business in 1975 and has been milking every since. He just has 30 cows that he and his wife milk with another 30 that he raises to replace the cows he now milks. As it is such a small farm he also works for another farmer that raises Beef and he cuts and bails hay for other farms for a percentage. Oh yes Both he and his wife grows about 200 tomato plants along with a small stand of corn, onions, lettuce and various other vegetables to help feed his family He sells quite a few tomatoes. He could get a lot more for his milk if he sold it fresh but since he sells it to the Milk company that pasteurizes it all and then sells it to the stores which then marks it up again, I think he now gets $1.89 per gallon which barely covers the cost of feed. One reason why he quickly replaces any cow that stops producing for any reason or stops giving a certain amount of milk. He is one of the few small dairy farmers in the area, the rest handle 100 or more cows. The people that make the most money are the middle men and they have it set up that if you sell any raw milk to any one, they can refuse to buy milk from you, which of course would end your business, so you are stuck with what ever price the set. I'm surprised that there isn't more huge dairy farms around and less small dairies.