Producing quality milk starts with cutting edge animal care. Farmers provide comfortable housing, nutritious feed, preventive health care programs, and sanitary milking procedures to keep their cows healthy.

The vast array of dairy products we consume on a daily basis all go back to the humble cow. We are a far cry from the days when cows were milked by hand. Today innovative technology and sophisticated milking machines make the processing of milk quicker and more hygienic. But the original milk factory has changed little.

Fast Fact: A healthy cow can produce up to 65 litres of milk a day

How do they do it?

The cow’s stomach consists of four parts:

The food the cow eats is stored in a section of the digestive tract called the rumen so that it can be chewed fine and digested later. The unchewed feed, mixed with saliva, is returned periodically from the rumen to the mouth where it is chewed again. (That’s when we say the cow is ruminating or chewing the cud.)

While enzymes digest the food mass, it passes through the rest of the stomach’s compartments (the reticulum, omasum and abomasums) to the small intestine. The cow absorbs more nutrients from the food there. The nutrients reach the blood, which transports them to the different body cells and to the udder where the milk is formed.

Did you know?

• Cows produce milk out of the food they eat and water they drink.
• A cow needs 65 litres of water a day and can produce the same amount of milk each day.
• Feed with a high nutritional value increases the quality of the milk.
• Milk production reduces in extreme temperatures.
• A content and healthy cow produces more milk.

When are they milked?

A cow must first have a calf before she can produce milk. After the birth she is milked 2 –3 times a day from day 6 six to day 300. She then rests for 60-90 days before she calves again and the cycle starts once more. A healthy cow will have 8 such cycles in her lifetime.

Fast Fact: South Africa’s top dairy cows are Friesland, Jersey, Ayrshire and Guernsey.