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How much milk does a cow produce during her life?
The dairy cow average milk production
The answer to the question: “how much milk does a cow produce during her life?” differs enormously between countries. The amount of milk per year a dairy cow on average produces varies enormously by country, whereas the variation in the average number of lactations is relatively small (see Figure 2). This makes it very hard to compare dairy cow average milk production.
Figure 1, dairy cow average milk production per year and average number of lactations per cow. Average milk yield per cow differs enormously between countries. If we want to compare the milk yield between countries or between dairy herds, it makes much more sense to compare the amount of milk a dairy cow on average produces per day during her entire life. This parameter is called: Lifetime Daily Yield (LDY). The LDY will tell you how much milk does a cow produce per day from birth to her last production day.
Improving Lifetime Daily Yield to make dairy farming more sustainable
The world population is still growing and most of the arable land available for farming is already being used. To make dairy farming more sustainable, it is estimated that by 2050, the production of food should double, while reducing the impact on the environment by 50%26. How to improve milk yield in cows?
Sustainable dairy farming comes with a number of challenges;
For the dairy industry there is only one way to meet these 3 challenges:
Improve feed conversion ratio for cattle to make use of existing resources more efficiently.
But how much milk does a cow produce? Increasing dairy cow average milk production and thus the Lifetime Daily Yield will help to reduce the environmental footprint, guarantee the health and welfare of animals and improve the financial performance of the dairy farmer.
Increasing Lifetime Daily Yield from a veterinary perspective
Increasing average milk yield per cow and Lifetime Daily Yield of dairy cows starts with metabolic programming of dairy calves during the early rearing phase. The next 2 phases in the production cycle that have a great impact are the dry cow period and the transition to lactation. Once animals are beyond 30 days in milk, the only factor with a significant impact on dairy cow average milk production is the quality of the roughage.
Reduce the environmental footprint of dairy farming
The amount of milk a dairy cow on average produces is key to reduce the environmental footprint
Studies carried out by the ILVO in Belgium19 have shown that the environmental impact and the use of natural resources of a dairy farm will be reduced if the number of youngstock can be reduced. If the age at first calving and the involuntary culling rate go down, the number of youngstock on a farm can be reduced and more cows producing milk can be kept.
The amount of energy per cow required for maintenance is fixed and not depending on how much milk does a cow produce. Therefore, if the milk yield per cow goes up, less feed will be required per kg of milk produced.
Increasing the Lifetime Daily Yield and dairy cow average milk production will therefore reduce the environmental footprint of dairy farming.
Improve milk yield, health and welfare of dairy cows
Increasing the resilience of dairy cows
How much milk does a cow produce? Milk processors and consumers of milk show an increasing interest in the health and welfare of dairy cows. Many of the disease problems seen in modern dairy cows reduce the feed conversion ratio for cattle and are related to a sub-optimal transition to lactation7,27,28. The metabolic diseases, lameness and mastitis often seen in the period immediately after calving have a strong negative impact on the amount of milk a dairy cow on average produces. Next to the effect on milk yield, there is a negative impact on animal welfare.
The Selko programme for sustainable dairy farming helps you to improve health and welfare of dairy cows, resulting in a smooth transition to lactation and an increase of dairy cow average milk production.
Provide the farmer of today and future generations with a healthy income
Improving feed efficiency
Financial profitability of dairy farming is depending on the question: how much milk does a cow produce? Dairy farm profitability is under continuous pressure. Dairy farming can only be sustainable if farmers can earn a living, now and in the future.
One of the most important financial parameters on a dairy farm is income over feed costs. To improve this parameter, feed conversion ratio of cattle and dairy cow average milk production should be improved. German research suggests that for a farm to be profitable, the average milk per day cow for the entire life of a cow, also known as the Lifetime Daily Yield (LDY), should be above 15 litres milk yield per cow per day20.
The Selko programme programme for sustainable dairy farming helps you to increase dairy cow average milk production and Lifetime Daily Yield of dairy cows.
Make milk production more sustainable by increasing Lifetime Daily Yield
To increase milk yield in dairy cows to achieve a Lifetime Daily Yield of at least 20 kg of milk per day, the following milk yield targets must be reached19,21,22,23,24,25.
We share our scientific insights to get the best results for you.
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At Selko we are committed to put our scientific insights to work in order to achieve sustainable dairy farming for farmers who are looking to transform their milk production processes and meet 3 critical demands: reducing the carbon dairy footprint, ensuring animal welfare and create an optimal financial performance.
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Selko Feed Additives
Making sustainable dairy farming more profitable
