COLUMBUS, Ohio — In Europe, and especially the Netherlands, dairy is part of the culture and fabric of the region; consumers want to see cattle grazing in the fields.

 

This spring The Ohio State University Dairy Institute Study Abroad visited the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to learn about the dairy industries there.

“We toured five dairy cow farms having just a few cows up to about 250 cows,” said Dr. Maurice Eastridge, OSU Professor and Extension Dairy Specialist.

“Most of the farms had Holstein Friesian, but one of them had the Blaarkop breed. Two of the farms were organic (they refer to them as biologic), and one was transitioning to becoming organic.”

Besides Dr. Eastridge, the 20 students on the tour were accompanied by Dr. Katy Proudfoot, OSU Dept. of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. They toured three university dairy facilities, a sheep dairy farm, a goat dairy farm, and an equine dairy farm in Belgium where they milked mostly Belgian mares.

“On the equine farm they have to milk about every two hours in the daytime and leave the foal with the mare during the night, so the foal gets enough milk, and the mare continues to lactate,” Eastridge said. On the farms they saw either De Laval or Lely robotic milker units, Lely Juno automatic feed pushers, Lely Discovery barn cleaners, automatic milk feeders for calves, and automated bedding systems, Eastridge said.

“The reason we like to go to Europe is that they have been more advanced in adopting automated technology such as the robots for milking cows and the automated milk feeding systems for calves,” Eastridge. “That’s because labor is limited there in terms of the labor supply – the number of people who want to work on farms – and the labor laws are a lot more strict than ours are.”

There continues to be increased restrictions in the European Union  related to animal health and welfare, Eastridge said. Tail docking is not allowed, and there is restricted use of antibiotics, calves have to be 14 days old to transport, dehorning with a hot iron requires an anesthetic which must be administered by a veterinarian.

Even with these regulations, Eastridge said that the comfort of the cows housed inside is often less than desirable with uncomfortable free stall surfaces, improperly designed and maintained free stalls, and inadequate ventilation.

Hannah Jarvis, a third-year OSU animal science major, went on the tour because she wanted to see these differences in dairy cattle farms in other countries.

“I thought it was an opportunity to see how raising dairy cattle worked in another country,” she said. “It’s very different over there; they don’t have milk inspectors, things like that. The way they run their organic farms is different. We can’t use any antibiotics. They have a low percentage or quantity they can use to treat their cows. It was interesting to compare and contrast.”

The cows give a little less milk than in the United States, Jarvis said. That’s because they’re on a grass-fed diet. They have some corn silage, but it is not as readily available as in this country.

Added Eastridge: “The whole aspect of the program is to share with students the importance of the dairy industry including the production, the processing – how dairy is important for food supply.

In this two-week program, we address the factors that are affecting the dairy industry both economic, environmental as well as animal welfare.