For cows to produce milk, they must first give birth to a calf. Just like humans, the gestation period for calves lasts nine months. Cows then give birth to their calves. From that moment on, they produce milk, which is also known as lactating. The lactation period lasts around 300 days, or 10 months.
Cows lactate when they begin to produce colostrum. This milk is reserved for the calf, which receives specific antibodies from it that protect the calf from infections. After a week, the milk is sent to the plant. Milk production reaches its peak in eight weeks and then gradually decreases until dry off.
Cows are inseminated again while they are lactating. Finally, the 2 months before a cow gives birth to the calf is considered dry time, when she is not milked. And the cycle starts over. That way, cows can give birth to calves and lactate several times, but usually an average of four times. To ensure an effective production level, producers renew a quarter of their herd every year.
Milking
Dairy cows are milked at least twice a day, in the morning and the evening. Over 20 million hours of work provincewide are spent on this activity every year….
Milk collection
Every other day, a tanker truck collects milk at dairy farms. Before drawing the milk from the milk tank, transporters, also known as testers, have to perform certain tests in order to determine if the milk can be loaded or not…
Processing
Once the milk is collected and delivered to the factory, what is done with it?