Dairy
By: Janelle B
Agriculture region
In the northeastern United States, southeastern Canada, and northwestern Europe
Definition
Dairy farm: Specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products
Top dairy producing countries
USA
91.3 billion kilograms of dairy products
India
60.6 billion kilograms of dairy products
China
30.7 billion kilograms of dairy products
Dairy farmers
Dairy farmers, like other commercial farmers, usually do not sell their products directly to consumers. Instead they generally sell milk to wholesalers, who distribute it to retailers. The choice of production varies within the US dairy region depending on the milkshed.
Commercial farmers
Dairy farmers face economic difficulties because of declining revenues and rising costs. Labor intensive of cows must be milked twice a day and feeding the cows during the winter.
Importance of dairy
Environmental
Cows produce a large amount of green house gases which contributes to climate change. Dairy farms can consume large amounts of water for growing feed, water for cows, manage manure and process products, and manure and fertilizer runoff can pollute water resources.
Fun facts:
It takes more cows to produce milk annually for Pizza Hut cheese (about 170,000) than there are people living in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
● Cows have an acute sense of smell, and can smell something up to six miles away.
● Vanilla is America's favorite ice cream flavor.
● The average cow produces enough milk each day to fill six one-gallon jugs, about 55 pounds of milk.
● Each person in America eats an average of 46 slices of pizza a year.
● All 50 states in the United States have dairy farms.
● The natural yellow color of butter comes mainly from the bets-carotene found in the grass cows eat.
● The average cow drinks from 30 - 50 gallons of water each day - about a bathtub's worth.
● It takes 12 pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream.
● A cow can't vomit.