FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Over the next 50 years, many things in the dairy industry will change, including the cows; that was the prediction of Jack Britt, of Jack H. Britt Consultants, during his April 18 presentation at the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference in Fort Wayne.

 

In response to a question from the audience, he said he doesn’t see the industry fading away over the next few decades. “We’ve been dairy farming for thousands of years and hundreds of generations, so I doubt we’re going (out of business) in one more generation,” he explained.

 

“I also think we’ll be competitive in the world market, but the key for us is knowing what the rest of the world is going to want to consume and if we can build a transportation system to achieve that.”

 

Britt, who grew up on a dairy farm in Warren County, Ky., began his talk by sharing photos from a 1950s-‘60s era dairy farm in the state. “We could milk 15 cows per hour if we were really lucky,” he reflected. “Looking back, we can see the kind of progress we’ve made in 50s years. We expect those changes to continue.”

 

The world’s population is about 7.4 billion people and is expected to reach more than 10 billion by 2067. “If we want to continue to grow our exports, we have to find out now what the world wants. We can’t wait 45 years to figure it out.”

 

Today’s dairy cows may produce an average of more than 20,000 pounds of milk annually. In 50 years, that number could be more than 55,000 pounds, an improvement of 2.5 times what they produce today, Britt said.

 

If those milk production numbers are accurate, farmers will need fewer cows in the future. “I’ll hear people ask if we’ve already reached the biological limits of dairy cows,” he said. “They wonder if we can go any farther, if we’re pushing the extreme. We are not anywhere close to pushing the biological limits.”

 

Climate change over the next 50 years will cause the growing season to be longer and to move north, he said. Britt predicted the Great Lakes region will see major dairy growth by 2067, as operations will shift to states with plenty of water.

 

Changes in farm layout may allow for a more efficient workforce, he noted. Driverless feed vehicles will be  common, as will robotics and staff veterinarians.

 

“We’ll be doing most things robotically in 50 years. There will be greater use of sensors and algorithms. This has a great future (in farming), just as it does in automobile manufacturing and other areas.”

 

Producers will also be feeding their animals different foods, such as energy grasses and annual or perennial maize. Genetics will be used in the cows of the future.

 

“As climate changes, breeds will be changed to meet the changing climate,” he said. “We can use (genetics) to improve health and efficiency, which would lead to a smaller environmental footprint.”

 

Farmers also need to look at the dairy herd as “a superorganism rather than a collection of cows, just like honeybees, termites or ants,” Britt noted. “They have to try to understand how herds operate.”