Does a cow produce milk all year round?
Physiologically, from the moment a heifer or a cow has given birth to a calf, it can produce milk for several years.However, the quantity is not constant: important at the start of the lactation, it then drops regularly, to natural drying up.
To stimulate milk production, cows put in artificial insemination, from the age of one year, every twelve months."Two months before the parturition (put in low, editor's note), the breeder dries up the cow by stopping streaming it.Stop milk production allows animals to regain weight and recover before a new insemination, explains Bernard Denis, honorary professor at the Nantes veterinary school.Milk production is therefore spread over ten months ".To which, therefore, two months of "rest" then nine months of gestation.
In some farms, the breeders split the herd in two and opt for two calves, in the spring and in the fall.
At birth, the calf heads his mother.These are not yet milk proper but colostrum, a liquid secreted by the mammary glands rich in antibodies (immunoglobulins).After a week, the breeder separates them.The calves are then often fed with powdered milk for two months and begin to get used to consuming fodder.After six months, calves have become ruminants.
25 liters of milk per day on average
Genetically selected to give ever more milk, a cow produced today on average 25 liters of milk per day over a period of ten months, three times more than in 1950.In France, among the dairy cattle breeds, we can cite the simmental, the Montbéliard, the Norman, the Vosges and especially the prim’holstein, champion in quantity produced.Jersiaise and Breton Pie Noir are renowned for the richness of milk in fat (buttering breeds).
Dairy cows at the end of life - also called reform cows - are put to fattening and sent to the slaughterhouse.They provide a good part of what is marketed in France under the name "beef".
