I have started the New Year with questions from farmers. Despite the difference in formulation, the inquiries converge on one question: “How do you make a cow produce milk to its maximum potential?”
The question is common and I have answered it many times to individual farmers, many of whom find it funny to relate to my description of a dairy cow. I call the animal a factory.
A factory is a place or building where products are made mainly using machines.
However, breeding and other scientific interventions have converted the dairy cow into a factory that makes products to improve human food security and livelihoods.
Their objective is valid but they need to understand that the modern dairy cow, like a physical factory, requires certain inputs and conditions for it to produce quality goods in the right quantities and at the required time.
The cow can be said to have three main factory units that contribute to optimising milk production.
The micro-organisms serve to break down feed material to release the nutrients the cow needs for body function, body maintenance, milk production and reproduction.
Microorganisms also utilise feed nutrients to manufacture nutrients such as proteins and vitamins for their own use.
A cow is able to get a large component of its protein requirements from the micro-organisms in the rumen.
Thus the inputs required for the proper functioning of the rumen factory unit of the cow are feeds containing high-quality carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and water.
Once the feeds are digested in the rumen and other stomachs, the nutrients are absorbed into the body in the rest of the digestive system.
They are delivered to the factory units through blood and other body fluids.
Most of the hormones are produced by the brain to develop the udder for milk production, sustain milk production, release milk through the teats during milking and to shut down milk production during pregnancy or when milk production cannot be sustained due to disease or lack of nutrients.
This is done through proper feeding of the pregnant cow and the calf through to puberty and the first pregnancy.
It provides the farmer with more calves that grow into cows for milk production or bulls to provide semen to produce more calves.
The combined outcomes of the functions of the three dairy cow factory units ensure the cow produces maximum quantities of milk, depending on the animal’s genetic makeup.
The genetic make-up may be considered to be the factory design of the cow.
Its environment should be clean and comfortable. The animal must also be handled in a caring, loving an gentle manner so that it is never scared or distressed.
When environmental conditions are adverse to dairy cattle, the animal produces bodily chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol that depress milk production.
Prolonged or frequent production of the chemicals also causes lowered immunity that exposes the animal to diseases, defective utilisation of nutrients and body wastage.
