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Fantastic article. I didn't realize dairy cows lactated ~60lbs/day or ~3.5% of their body weight. Totally insane. Chickens appear to be this way too -- from som
by why_only_15 2y ago
Fantastic article. I didn't realize dairy cows lactated ~60lbs/day or ~3.5% of their body weight. Totally insane. Chickens appear to be this way too -- from some quick research Rhode Island Reds are ~3kg, lay ~300 eggs/year and each egg is ~62g.
The graph at the end ("US milk yield continues to grow, but falls short of its genetic potential") is interesting. If I saw that graph, I would interpret it as dairy farmers overfitting on the genetic yield potential measure, not as something that needs explanations like climate change.
- O5vYtytb 2y agoI think the second paragraph is poorly written > America’s cows are now extraordinarily productive. In 2024, just 9.3 million cows will produce 226 billion pounds of milk (about 100 million tons) – enough milk to provide ten percent of 333 million insatiable Americans’ diets, and export for good measure. Is that all the cows in the US? Why tell us how many cows produce 10 percent of demand?
- why_only_15 2y agoWhat he means is that 10M cows, all the cows in the US, produce dairy products that are 10% of calories in US diets.
- Terr_ 2y ago> I didn't realize dairy cows lactated ~60lbs/day or ~3.5% of their body weight. Totally insane. I'd temper that a little bit by noting that milk is largely (~90%) water by weight.
- why_only_15 2y agoTrue, though it's still enough nutrients to feed three people's entire caloric needs.
- wappieslurkz 2y agoImagine the suffering at the animals' side....