According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the average milk production per cow in the United States in 2006 was 19,951 lb/cow, which is equivalent to 2,320 gallons per cow per year. Milk production per cow can vary quite a bit. I believe you are talking about dairy cows and not beef cattle. But first those beef cows you see out on pasture or range have to produce milk for their calves. On decent pasture a beef cow will produce 2 gallons of milk per day. As a generality if you are milking a cow and the cow is only getting hay or pasture she will produce around 20 pounds/day, depending on the breed, size of the cow and individual differences in the cow.
Milk production will vary by breed and cow size but also milk composition will vary from cow to cow, with butterfat varying the most though protein will vary as well. Holstein milk, the most common dairy cow’s milk in the U.S. will average 3.5% butterfat and around 3.2% protein. Jerseys and those beef cows you see can have over 5% butterfat and protein a bit higher too. Typically processors will pay extra for higher protein and butterfat. That cow does need to use more energy and therefore needs more feed to produce higher butterfat and protein.9
On AVERAGE, 30 to 40 litres a day, so that would be about 8 to 10 gallons. This would be the average over the whole lactation for an average Canadian Holstein cow.
After calving the milk production increases for about 60 days (this makes sense because their calf would be growing and needing more of it) and then slowly lessens for the rest of the lactation (also logical, for her calf would start grazing and need less milk). So, while the average might be, say, 9 gallons, she might surprise you with twice as much. That is a bit of the problem with the ‘family cow’; there is no way you can drink.
Nutrient Needs For Milk Production In Cow
If cow mature weight were fixed at 1,200 pounds and milk production varied from 10 pounds/day to 30 pounds/day, annual maintenance energy needs increase. As milk output per day increases from 10 to 20 pounds/day, annual maintenance energy needs increase by 8% (7,815 Mcal per year compared to 8,427 Mcal per year). The increase in annual maintenance energy of a 1,200 pound mature cow producing 10 pounds of milk daily is 16% less than the same cow producing 30 pounds of milk daily.
If milk output per day is fixed at 10 pounds per day and cow mature weight changes from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds or 1,400 pounds, annual maintenance energy needs increase 14% going from a 1,000 pound cow (6,803 Mcals annually) to a 1,200 pound cow (7,728 Mcals annually). Likewise, maintenance energy needs increase 27% between a 1,000 pound cow compared to a 1,400 pound cow (8,637 Mcals annually).
An Average Cow Milk production
If you are into numbers, then you are going to enjoy the following information. The United States is definitely among the leading dairy producing countries across the world. An average cow can produce around 21,000 pounds of milk each year, which is almost 2,500 gallons. That’s a lot of milk we are talking about. Just to get a better picture, a single cow produces around 8 gallons of milk per day, which can translate to approximately 128 glasses. When it come to herds of cows, their production capability can go even higher, and some figures indicate that 800 cows can give around 2.3 million gallons a year.
It’s true that the human population consumes large quantities of dairy products, so it’s necessary for the industry to be able to sustain this. One aspect that definitely influences the data gathered on this topic is the fact that cows are specially bred and selected to improve their production capabilities over time. For this reason, new records numbers are reached every year. An example here would be a news report which stated that a cow in Wisconsin managed to produce up to 23 gallons of milk every single day.
Factors That Affect Milk production In Cow
There are many aspects that have an impact on the quantity of milk that a cow can produce. If you are thinking about getting into this business, then learning every aspect that might impact the production of milk is a good place to start from. This way you can organize your entire frame of operations in the right way from the beginning. One of the variables that you need to take into consideration is genetics. If a cow comes from a line of highly productive representatives, chances are that she will follow into the same footsteps and ensure a large quantity of milk. Of course, breeds also play a crucial role in this matter, since some are known for their record milk outputs.
Food, which tends to be a key factor in every major aspect that involves nature, needs to be considered as well. The quality of the food and the level of nutrition is the most important aspect that can influence production. Moreover, what a cow eats can also have an impact over the quality of the milk itself. This might not seem as obvious at first, but weather also plays an important part in this matter. Sudden changes can cause stress which in turn decreased the daily output. It doesn’t really matter if we’re talking about hot or cold weather.
Any extreme temperatures can have a negative impact, which means that farmers constantly look for ways to enhance their comfort across seasons. There are also three main stages of production in a cow’s life, depending on her age, as well as on other factors. A cow will start producing milk when she has her first calf. Throughout time, the milk production will increase and then reach a peak, after which it will start decreasing until it will stop altogether. Since cows continue to grow until they are around 3 to 4 years old, they tend to produce more milk once this period is over.