[Ron-S29630]

I was drinking a glass of moo juice a few minutes ago and, out of nowhere, it struck me: does a single solitary cow produce milk 365 days a year, or is it some sort of seasonal thing? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but not really ... look at some of the questions they are asking about sex and crap like that around here. Somebody on a dairy please give me an answer or else I won't be able to sleep.

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Name : Ron-S29630, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 60, City : Stockton, State : CA Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[Dana27203]

I have no cow-related experience, but my significant other's sister owns a dairy farm. Cows only produce milk after they have given birth to a calf (I'm not sure for how long after).

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Name : Dana27203, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 34, City : Pittsburgh, State : PA Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Keith26542]

Yes, a cow can produce milk every day for years and years. Not only that, but most are milked twice a day. I know of good dairy cows putting out 5 gallons per milking, twice a day. That'll make a lot of mustaches! This is also why some dairy farmers become so attached to some of their cows.

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Name : Keith26542, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 40s, City : small town, State : AL Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Bash]

A cow milks after giving birth. She will essentially continue to produce milk for as long as she is being milked. The longer she is milked the less milk she will have per day. The ideal cow gives birth once every 365ish days and will milk for 260 days a year, then spend between 45 to 90 days as a 'dry' cow--i.e. one that is not milked and therefore will quit producing milk. Farmers 'dry-off' a cow so she has a chance to recover from 'effort' of producing milk. A cow produces the most milk during her third lactation with good cows milking 100 lbs a day and the highest cows making in excess of 150 lbs a day. A good dairy herd will make 80 lbs of milk per day a cow or 30,000 lbs a year. Whole milk weighs 8.4lbs/gallon, so you can do the math. Your average farmer must milk all his cows every 12 hours 365 days a year because at any time greater than 3/4 of the cows in a well kept herd will be 'in milk.' Many farms are going to milking cows three, four, five, or even six times a day. This is a huge amount of labor, but it seems that cows might be happier being milked that amount of time--remember if her calf were milking her the calf would be milking her constatly.

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Name : Bash, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 33, City : Newtown, State : PA Country : United States, Occupation : Veterinarian, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Dwanny]

Cows on factory farms are kept pregnant to produce milk 24/7. They are artificially inseminated at RAPE racks, the babies are disposable, cause we don't want them to drink up the profits, cows can't walk because their udders are too big, and they're in such pain. Go to www.milksucks.com and read all about it. The only animal that should be drinking cow, sheep, goat, human, whatever milk is the babies.

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Name : Dwanny, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Pagan, Age : 53, City : Springtown, State : TX Country : United States, 

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