How dairy cow have changed over the years

Naylorbros · Mar 12, 2019

My great grandfather loved his Holstein cow and liked to spend money getting more of them. When my grandmother got married she brought her cows with her and started a small herd at her new home. They were in the dairy business until 1958 when they were told they needed to upgrade from Surge buckets. My grandfather called the Brigham Young University Dairy and the truck arrived the next day to pick up all of the cows but one. The BYU dairy had been after the cow for a few years. The reason I am posting this is we ran into a few pedigrees of cows and bulls that my great grandfather bought. This is the oldest of the one I looked at for a bull that was born in Oct. of 1919. Look at the production numbers and see how they have changed over the years. I hope you can read them as pictures as I did not think the paper would survive the scanner
Thanks
Ken

BarnyardEngineering · Mar 12, 2019

If cows still milked like that, farmers would be getting paid handsomely for their milk. Farmers wouldn't have had a reason to expand. Children would have had a reason to stay on the farm, so the farm would have stayed in the family. There would be nothing but small dairy farms all over the country.

Funny they were pushing your grandmother out of Surge milkers in 1958. We had surge milkers until 1985.

M Nut · Mar 12, 2019

Folks used surge milkers until selling the dairy herd in 1979, neighbor next farm over used surge milkers until his sell out sale in 1998. So, I too, would have never guessed there was a
push to do away with them as early as the 1950's. Interesting documentation though.

Philip d · Mar 12, 2019

Some of the better cows today can give 20X that amount but they don?t live to 10 very often anymore. Cows back then were like pets and lived to be 15-beyond 20 in some cases. It?s all about cheap milk at the expense of the cow and small farms. Before anyone jumps down my throat modern barns are extremely comfortable but cows still don?t live half as long as they did back then.

centash · Mar 12, 2019

In our case, bucket Milker's were replaced by pipeline milking in the 70s. Easier to handle the milk and clean the system.In my years of milki g we saw production per cow easily double, the herd averaged 22000 lbs per head. I felt the 305 day lactation was too short given how the cows were pushed and producing. And yes, we never had a cow die from old age....
Ben

Kansasredneck · Mar 12, 2019

Dad got the first surge milker about 1968. Before that it was hand milking.
Actually my brother got the machine. Dad thought they were cruel to use until my brother graduated.

Commercial Farmer · Mar 12, 2019

1958 would even be on the early side of the push from cans to bulk tanks.

MJMJ · Mar 12, 2019

(quoted from post at 16:40:49 03/12/19) Some of the better cows today can give 20X that amount but they don?t live to 10 very often anymore. Cows back then were like pets and lived to be 15-beyond 20 in some cases. It?s all about cheap milk at the expense of the cow and small farms. Before anyone jumps down my throat modern barns are extremely comfortable but cows still don?t live half as long as they did back then.

The only reason they don’t live as long is because they’re rotated out for younger animals. Milking drops off as they age, it makes no financial sense to keep a poor milking animal. Dairies are barely scraping by as it is, poor milkers will send them straight to the welfare line. The animals are healthier now than ever.

Philip d · Mar 12, 2019

It?s not only that but their feet and legs don?t last as long
walking on cement all the time and giving that much milk it?s a
lot harder in many cases to get them bred back. I know a few
guys but not too many that use a bedded pack and their cows
last a lot longer being on a comfy straw pack with no stall
dividers to contend with or very little time walking on cement.
Yes low producers get moved out but a few years of very high
production those girls either don?t get bred back or 4-5 years
walking on cement wears the joints out. The diets back then
were mainly rolled oats and dry hay,the manure was
thick,highly palatable forages and balanced protein makes
them loose like they?re on fresh spring grass. Cows are like
people and equipment ,there?s so much work in their
bodies,we either get a lifetime of production out of them in15-
20 years or work them harder to make cheaper milk and get it
out of them before they turn 6. It?s all economics to stay afloat.

Philip d · Mar 12, 2019

I?ll ad to that if cows were fed and housed/pastured the same way they were back then you?d need 10x more animals and barn space plus way more feed land and labour,milk would be so expensive in that scenario few people could afford it.

Bruce from Can. · Mar 12, 2019

Cows can and do live longer lives when they go out to pasture in the summer months. As has already been stated, cows don?t give as much milk on a pasture diet as cows fed in total confinement. I maybe didn?t make as much gross revenue when we did rotational grazing, but I also didn?t have as many variable cost either. I milked with the Surge bucket milkers till I could afford to put in a milk line. We could still ship milk using bucket style milkers now if we choose to.

Naylorbros · Mar 13, 2019

There was a 500 gallon bulk tank in a different room of the milk barn. It was finally sold in in the early 70s. I remember going in there once when I was little. At one time in West Jordan, UT there were around 26 small dairies. There are none left now except a goat dairy. When I was small, born in 1970, I can remember none that were left using buckets except at the county fair, all had milk lines installed. The last one moved around 20 years ago.

How dairy cow have changed over the years

Naylorbros

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BarnyardEngineering

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M Nut

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Philip d

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centash

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Kansasredneck

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Commercial Farmer

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MJMJ

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Philip d

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Philip d

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Bruce from Can.

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Naylorbros

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