Farms are important to the world. We get nearly all of the food we eat from them. When our country began, most people were farmers. As they learned more about agriculture, farmers began to use science to make their crops grow faster and grow more. Farm animals were grown so that [...]
MILK MACHINES – Dangers in the Dairy Industry
BGH: Turning Cows Into Biotech Milk Machines
Milk and dairy products produced in the United States – unless otherwise labeled – may come from cows routinely injected with a genetically engineered hormone called recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH).
This is the story of BGH – its effect on cows, consumers, [...]
HOW NOW, HAPPY COW?
Grass Fed Dairy — Milk and Cheese from Grass Fed Cows
On a fairly regular basis, Grinning Planet throws cow pies at “industrial agriculture”—those massive, corporate farming operations—while singing the praises of small farms and sustainable, non-chemical agriculture. It all sounds good: who doesn’t prefer the idea of varied, natural, lush fields to [...]
DAIRY FARMS
Dairy farms are farms where cows are raised to make milk and milk products like cheese, ice cream, butter and whipping cream. We went to a local dairy farm to see what it was like—up close. It wasn’t what we expected. The farm that we visited had registered [...]
DAIRY COWS PART II
Dairy Cows
Traditional small dairies, located primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, are going out of business. They are being replaced by intensive ‘dry lot’ dairies, which are typically located in the Southwest U.S.
Regardless of where they live, however, all dairy cows must give birth in order to begin producing milk. Today, dairy cows are forced [...]
DAIRY COWS
Dairy Cows
Montcalm County, Michigan is home to almost 140 dairy farms. Dairy herds range in size from as small as 10 cows to as many as 1800 cows. This large variation in size is a function of an extraordinarily diverse group of dairy producers throughout the county.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated that Montcalm [...]
COWS
There are two kinds of cattle: the kind that are raised to become beef dinners and the ones that are raised for milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream. We will describe beef cows in our Cattle section. Dairy cows are treated differently than beef cows.
Some breeds [...]