Holsteins are the most common dairy breed throughout the world. They have been genetically improved to produce a higher yield to become more profitable for the dairy industry. The first Holstein originated in Europe approximately 2000 years ago (1). They emerged from the Netherlands in the provinces of Northern Holland and Friesland. Interbreeding of the black Batavian cattle and the white Friesian cattle created a black and white cow that could make use of the rich pasture lands of the Rhine region. Such interbreeding allowed the ability of the Batavian cattle’s digestive system and the Friesian cattle’s body and udder size to produce an efficient and high producing dairy cow (1).
Holsteins are a versatile breed of cattle. They are adaptable to all types of different utilizations. This breed can thrive in both barn and pasture life or a mixture of both throughout the year. With such versatility, Holsteins are resistant to stress and produce strong and hearty calves that have a rapid growth and an early maturity rate. Although Holsteins are resistant to stress, they do show intolerance to heat and disease. The consequence of such intolerance is a reduction in milk productivity (1).
Even with a naturally high milk production, years of selective breeding has increased this yield further. Since the 1960s, the U.S. dairy industry dramatically improved selective breeding efforts, helping double milk production (2). With this major development, it is likely that genetic improvements can increase 1% to 2% per year (1). Presently, 30% of the Holstein’s genome has been modified by selective breeding procedures. These modifications can be illustrated by an increase in milk production. Between 1957 and 2007, milk production increased by...
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....holsteinusa.com/holstein_breed/breedhistory.html. Holstein Association USA.
5. www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070109.htm. United States Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service.
6. http://www.biotech.iastate.edu/biotech_info_series/Bovine_Somatotropin.html. Bovine Somatotropin (bST).
7. Santos J, Juchem S, Cerri R, Galvao K, Chebel R, Thatcher W, Dei C, Bilby C. Effect of bST and reproductive management on reproductive performance of Holstein dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science. 2004;87:868-881.
8. www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2002/020920.htm. United States Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service.
9. Kerr D, Wellnitz O. Mammary expression of new genes to combat mastitis. Journal of Animal Science. 2003;81:38-47.
10. www.ciwf.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2009/f/factsheet_dairy_cows_dec08.pdf. Compassion in World Farming Factsheet.
The Dairy Cattle Instructional Unit was built in 1992 and is used for a wide range of instructional activities. The first floor of this unit contains two classrooms, a computer room, a nutrition and physiology laboratory, and a microbiology laboratory. Numerous plaques and awards from local cattle shows dot the white walls. Cal Poly has bred some of the top-rated cows in the nation for type and production and individual cows have won many awards for the rich content and amount of milk produced. Industrial-like stairs along one wall lead up to the second floor where visitors can view the milking process. Cows are milked at the milking parlor daily from 4 to 6 am and 4 to 6 pm. This immaculate parlor can milk 16 cows at one time and contains state of the art milking equipment including an energy-efficient pre-cooling system, which the milk passes through before being stored in two 3,000-gallon bulk tanks. The physiology laboratory is used for artificial insemination, feed analysis, and dairy biotechnology courses. Students perform experiments such as embryo manipulations and transfer techniques in this laboratory.
Hasheider, Philip. How to Raise Cattle: Everything You Need to Know. St. Paul: Voyageur, 2007. Print.
Cattle breeders inject their female cattle (cows) with hormones to help with reproduction for reasons such as fertility and synchronization. With fertility help, the cow is injected with a hormone such as GnRH in Factrel, Fertagyl, and Cystrolrelin to help start ovulation. Once the cow begins to ovulate, it may become pregnant. Another reason hormone injections are used in cows is for synchronization. The
Laliberte, Richard. "Growth Hormones in Beef and Milk." WeightWatchers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. .
Every beef cattle produced is injected with steroids. With the injection of steroids it makes the cow grow at an alarming rate, and helps turn food into muscle at a quicker rate. But this is the obvious information. What are they putting into both dairy cattle and beef cattle that could cause harm to us? There is a harmful hormone called IGF. Now, this hormone is not directly put into the cattle. But, all cattle are given rBGH (to put simply it helps them produce more milk/meat). But, rBGH is directly linked to IGF, a hormone that mimics the effects of the growth of human hormones in dangerous ways. It is said that cattle containing rBGH produce 10 times to IGF than cattle without rBGH. “In a 2004 study, patients with above-average IGF levels had nearly a 50% higher risk of prostate cancer and a 65% higher risk of hormone-dependent premenopausal breast cancer than people with below-average levels.” says Carina Storrs of Health.com. Also, a lot of cattle are dosed with high amounts of antibiotics, like penicillin. It is said that a lot of the antibiotics that humans use become ineffective from being exposed to antibiotic resistant bacteria from eating beef! These are just a few of MANY drugs put into cattle. Do you see how consuming high amounts of beef could be harmful to
America is one of the world’s largest producers of beef. According to Raloff (2002), approximately 36 million beef cattle are raised in America each year, and approximately two-thirds are treated with hormones (para.2). Farmers use these hormones to increase the rate of growth in their cattle. By increasing the cattle’s growth rate, the farmers can produce more beef and still making more money, they can sell it at an inexpensive rate to the consumers. The hormones that may be administered to beef and dairy cattle may already be produced, in small amounts, naturally in their own bodies or synthetic. According to the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration (2002), “the accepted naturally occurring hormones that may be administered to beef and milk producing cattle are estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and the synthetic hormones that are accepted are zeranol, trenbolone acetate, and melengestrol acetate.” None of the hormones listed above are acceptable in the industries in Europe to give for the food and milk productions.
Speed, in a word, or, in the industry’s preferred term, “efficiency.” Cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and for a half a century now the industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef animal’s allotted span on earth… what gets a steer from 80 to 1,100 pounds in fourteen months is tremendous quantities of corn, protein and fat supplements, and an arsenal of new drugs. (71)
What Makes Human Milk Special? (Mar-Apr 2006). New Beginnings Vol. 23 No.2 , pp 82-3.
Diskin, M. G. (201). Fertility in the High Producing Dairy Cow (Vol. Volume 2). BSAS.
An abundance of Americans have no idea that most of the food that they consume are either processed or altered in one way or another. “Almost all beef cattle entering feedlots in the United States are given hormone implants to promote faster growth. The first product used for this purpose is DES (diethylstilbestrol) it was approved for use in beef cattle in 1954. An estimated two-thirds of the nation's beef cattle were treated with DES in 1956. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, Brazil, and Skakkebaek)” Many people enjoy the various meats that comes from a cow, but that would probably change if the consumers knew that cattle is one of the most processed meat source in the market today because of the synthetic hormones that the cows are given. “ The three synthetic hormones are the estrogen compound zeranol, the androgen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, B...
Cows are naturally very gentle and calm creatures. These smart and sweet natured animals have been known to go to great lengths to escape slaughterhouses. More than forty-one million of these sensitive animals suffer and die a painful death each year in the United States. When cows are still very young they are burned with hot irons, there testicles are torn or cut off, all without painkillers. Most beef cattle are born in one state, live in another, and are slaughtered in another. The cows who survive the gruesome transportation process are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung upside down by there legs, and taken onto the killing floor where there throats
Lemaux, P.G. (2006). Introduction to genetic modification. Agricultural Biotechnology in California Series, 8178. Retrieved from http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8178.pdf
Breeding cattle isnt as cracked up as it is to be. There are many variables that goes into it. The best season, when it should be done, steps to do it.
Milk production, milk fat, protein content and the progression of breeding are also affected, especially in dairy cows. When heat stress occurs, dairy cows tend to reduce the intake of dry matter in order to control their heat production from increasing through the process of metabolism and digestion (Donnelly, 2012).... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved from: http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/dairy/facilities/economic-impacts-of-heat-stress IFAD.
Machlin, L. J. (1973, May). Effect of Growth Hormone on Milk Production and Feed Utilization in Dairy Cows [Abstract]. Elsevier, 56(5), 575-580. Retrieved from https://vpn.york.cuny.edu/dana-na/auth/url_3/welcome.cgi?p=forced-off