Move Over, Milky Way— Our Cows Are Stars Too BY R. P. NIEDERMEIER, G. BOHSTEDT, AND C. A. BAUMANN Today's dairy cow is a fantastic producer. Like all mammals, a cow gives milk because she has offspring and must feed it. Since milk is such a nutritious food, she has been de- veloped as a milk producer and today the average cow not only feeds her calf but also provides milk and dairy products for 19 people. Our Nation's 11Y4 million milk cows annually produce over 115 billion pounds of milk, thus providing 253 quarts for every person in the United States. In 1975, Mowry Prince Corinne, a registered 9%-year-old Holstein cow owned by Mowry Farms, Roaring Springs, Pa., completed the highest milk record ever produced in a single lactation by a cow of any breed. In 365 days she produced 50,759 pounds of milk. On her highest test day she produced 180.4 pounds of milk! In a single lactation she produced 23,609 quarts —a year's milk for 64 U.S. families. This new record dramatically demonstrates how the dairy cow has been developed as a producer of human food. The oldest written records of man show that dairying was developed as far back as 6,000 B.C. Through history the cow has been used as a beast of burden, an object of worship, and a source of meat and milk. Dairy cattle were not native to America; the first importation came to the United States in 1624. From colonial times to the 18 50's, dairying was a family cow business. All of the U.S. dairy breed associations were formed between 1865 and 1885, thus establishing herd books for the registration of cattle. The dairy industry has grown to provide nearly 15 percent R. P. Niedermeier is Professor of Dairy Science, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison. G. Bohstedt is Emeritus Professor of Meat and Animal Science. C. A. Baumann is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry. 139 Left, an oldtime cream separator, usually turned by a husky farm boy with muscle-power to spare. Right, modern cream separators are in foreground at this dairy processing plant. of the total farm income in the United States, and in leading dairy States accounts for 50 to 60 percent of farm cash receipts. Add the cost of processing, storage, distribution and retailing and this agri-business annually represents a $14 billion industry—a big change since the first cheese factory was established in Oneida, N. Y., in 1851. Today's dairy industry is more than ever before concentrated in the Great Lakes area. Over half of the nation's milk supply is now being produced in the eight States touching the Great Lakes, with other major areas being the northeastern United States and California. Wisconsin is the leading milk producing State fol- lowed by California, New York, and Minnesota. Technology for the production and processing of milk is the result of many factors. The development of bacteriology begin- ning with experiments by the French scientist Louis Pasteur led to pasteurization, a process used to destroy harmful bacteria in milk. The centrifugal separator invented by DeLaval provided a fast, convenient means of mechanically separating milk and cream. The Babcock test, perfected by Dr. Babcock in 1890, made possible an accurate chemical test for quality that has been used for milk payment and production records. 140 Holstein cows at Utah State University Dairy Farm. Control of possible milk-borne diseases such as tuberculosis was essential. A test and slaughter program begun in 1920 has elimi- nated this disease from U.S. dairy cattle—the beginning of many health control programs that have assured us a safe, healthful milk supply. Agricultural research has been and continues to be the key to new technology and increased productivity. This began with the establishment of Colleges of Agriculture by the Land Grant Act of 1862, and the subsequent funding for research in agriculture by the Hatch Act of 1887. In 1914, the agricultural extension service established by the Smith-Lever Act added the dimension of taking information from research farms and laboratories to dairymen and processors. Extension has likewise provided a means of bringing problems from farms and milk plants to the researchers. Agricultural re- search in the State and Federal experiment stations is essential if we are to continue to increase our output of animal products from the limited resources available to feed the growing human population. Adding to a well established heritage of dairying brought by immigrants from Europe when this country was settled have been inventions; development of sciences such as bacteriology, chem- istry, genetics and nutrition; the development of agricultural education, research and extension; industrial technology, trans- portation, and the development of marketing and promotional or- 141 ganizations. These have been important to our dairy industry. However, most of the credit is due the modern dairy farmer on whose farm the whole process must begin. The Darkest Place The dairy cow's abiHty to convert feed energy and protein into food is outstanding. As a ruminant she is endowed with the abihty to thrive on forages such as pasture, hay, and silage. She converts fibrous material that people cannot eat into protein- rich milk. W. D. Hoard, founder of Hoard^s Dairy^nany once said, "The inside of a cow is the darkest place in the world," The more recent science of "ruminology" has helped turn on lights inside the rumen or first compartment of the four-compartment ruminant stomach. The rumen or fermentation vat which holds up to 50 gallons in a large cow is the home of billions of bacteria and protozoa that digest cellulose, produce many vitamins, and manufacture es- sential amino acids or excellent protein for the cow either from non-protein nitrogen present in forages or that fed as urea (urea is a cheap synthetic chemical). The ruminant also has the unique ability to digest many waste products of the food and feed indus- try. By-products from the manufacture of sugar, starch, flour, beer and alcohol are efficiently converted to nutritious foods. Population pressures have led to suggestions that we shall soon become dependent upon plants for our food supply. It is true that more people can be fed per acre if cereal grains and protein oilseeds are used directly for human food rather than converted by animals into products such as milk and meat. The following quote from one of the opening paragraphs in an article published in the Agricultural Science Review, Volume 5, Number 2, ''Ru- minant Livestock—Their Role in the World Protein Deficit," by L. A. Moore, P, A. Putnam, and N. D. Bayley aptly speaks to this issue. '^Although the emphasis on cereal and oilseed proteins has some basis, relegating animal agriculture to a passive contribu- tion to world food deficits indicates a failure to appreciate the full impact of feed inputs into livestock production. "We contend that generally accepted concepts regarding the efficiency of livestock production in terms of use of available resources are erroneous. We contend that because livestock use forages and other feeds inedible to humans, the use of limited amounts of cereals as livestock feeds can enhance the efficiency 142 of producing proteins for humans in term^s of total food re- source titilization, *Turthermore, there are promising research leads, which, if exploited, can markedly increase the efficiency with which ani- mal proteins can be produced. We also contend that consider- ing the world food deficits solely in terms of amounts of protein or calories may result in answers which will make only the less desired diets available to the 'have nots' and may aggravate the serious sociological problems of the world rather than reduce them." About 70 percent of the protein of the average U.S. dairy cow is obtained from forages. Recent trends toward heavier grain feeding to high-producing dairy cows can be reversed. Heavier grain feeding is the result of new technologies which have made grains increasingly abundant and relatively cheap. But with feed grains and soybeans in world-wide demand, we are now experiencing a transition to higher priced corn and soy- beans and the importance of forages in dairy cattle feeding will almost certainly increase. Research has shown that dairy cows can synthesize essential amino acids in the rumen from urea. A. I. Virtanen, Nobel Prize winning scientist in Finland, demonstrated in 1966 that cows on protein-free feed could produce reasonable quantities of milk. Today large amounts of urea are used in ruminant feeds, and research continues to determine methods to increase the levels of urea or other forms of non-protein nitrogen that can be used by high-producing cows. Research is also being done on the treatment of woody, poor quality forages—such as straw and corn stover (stalks and leaves after the ears are harvested)—to make the cellulose more avail- able for milk production. Through cooperative efforts of sci- entists working in forestry research laboratories, wood has been treated to enhance its use by ruminants. Wood "molasses" and poor quality forage have also been used as a feed energy source. Our Need for Milk A strong argument for a flourishing dairy industry, even in the face of greatly increased population pressure, is the high nutritive value of milk to man. High-quality protein, a generous supply of nearly all of the vitamins, and a rich source of most of the essential minerals make milk the ideal supplementary food. It is possible to devise a vegetarian diet adequate in protein, 143 but it is very much easier to do so with milk in the diet.