Did You Know: How much milk a dairy cow produces?

If you do, kudos to you! I was asked how much milk a dairy cow produces each day during my classroom visits last week. Not to leave them with my immediate answer of, "Um...well...a lot..." I did some research so I could send them a more definite answer.
Here's some of what I learned through Purdue's website, and Ag Mags for Kids (which I now cannot find online)

The average dairy cow produces around 6.5 gallons of milk a day. A gallon of milk weights 8.6 pounds, so that's 55.9 pounds of milk each day. Holy cow!

The record holding cow produced an astounding 52, 298 pounds (almost 7,000 gallons) of milk in one year. Holy cow again!

The most popular dairy breed in American is the Holstein.

It takes about 350 squirts to get a gallon of milk from a cow, and most cows are milked twice a day.

It takes 3 gallons of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream, and 30 cups of milk to make one pound of butter.

All this massive production doesn't come without some serious feed being provided for these dairy cows. The average dairy cow weighs 1,400 lbs according to Purdue, and they are fed between 50 and 90 pounds of grain and hay each day. This is some high quality stuff too, nothing but the best for these girls.

Another fun fact from the website: 1967 is the year plastic milk jugs were introduced in the U.S.

I was asked this question after we got it cleared up that the cattle kids would see in Eastern Wyoming, along highways and in pastures, were not the kind used to produce the milk they drank. In case you were wondering (I was), the best range of milk production for beef breeds in western states that I found was 1-3.5 gallons.

Obviously there is a lot of variation in beef cow's milk production based on her genetics, the diet she is consuming, weather, and various other factors. But, that range does give us an idea that we're looking at less than half the production of dairy cattle in our beef breeds, which makes sense because of the different purposes of dairy and beef cattle.

Foriegn cows and steak

I have some time this morning while waiting for people to return my calls and emails. I am also ahead for the week (yay)!
I started this blog with the intention of it being fairly educational and the result has been almost purely my opinion. I have realized that after thinking up ideas, calling people, writing articles and editing the paper I've had about enough of informative writing.
Now that I have that off my chest...
The latest Happy California Cow commercial features "Canadian Kirsten." The California cows marvel at her perfect English and Kirsten mentions how thrilled she is to be a "Happy California Cow."
This bothers me, maybe I'm overreacting but didn't Canadian Holstein cows result in a lot of "Unhappy" California and U.S. cows in general? Uh, yes!
Canadian dairy cows infected with BSE have caused massive amounts of frustration and financial loss for U.S. cattle producers. The first case of BSE found in the U.S. was in Washington state and the cow traced back to Canadian origin. The resulting upset of the general public and lack of knowledge regarding BSE had detrimental effects on the beef industry. When the Canadian border was re-opened it lowered the price of U.S. Beef again.
We strive to produce the highest quality, safest beef product in the world and do a great job of it. I don't think having another Canadian dairy cow in California is going to improve beef or milk marketability. I also don't like the way they portrayed the Canadian dairy cow, especially in light of all the problems that have stemmed from "Canadian Kirsten's" in the past. I think the next California Cow should already be a U.S. cow.
On a more upbeat note, all the talk about beef makes me think of steak :) While Ribeye's are almost always great my personal favorite is the the Sirloin, grilled medium rare...mmm. You can really tell the quality of the animal by the flavor and tenderness of a Sirloin steak. This is the first thing my family samples when doing quality control on our latest beef.
For steak and other beef recipes click here or here.