On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 6:22 PM randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> When I do the math, half a million dairy cows in the U.S. die each year on
> the farm. That's in the ballpark of the number of commercial honey
> colonies that die each year.
I worked for a long time as a dairy veterinarian, and when talking to a
veterinary group as a bee guy, I have drawn this correlation. Everyone
says that the bees are doing so poorly with 40% loss, but on a dairy herd,
that level of herd turnover is not uncommon. If you figure there are 9
million dairy cows in the US with a 30% cull rate, that is about 3 million
cows leaving the farm as culls (going to slaughter). With about 5% dying
on farm, that is the half million Randy calculates.
There are some differences though.
Dairy cows have two potential uses - make milk or be meat. The producer
must decide if a cow is going to live on the farm and make milk, producing
perhaps 0 to $20 per day gross revenue or be sold to the slaughterhouse for
say $500. The producer usually has a lot more into raising the animal for
two years before she makes milk, so capturing the revenue stream instead of
the one time payment is usually the better decision.
Dead cow disposal may cost a couple hundred dollars. Producers are pushed
to make decisions on cows when they are healthy so slaughter (and revenue
generation) is a suitable option. Dead cows tend to be on farm because of
accidents or failure to make a cull decision early enough. When a producer
has a sick cow with antibiotic or other medication in her system, she
cannot be sold for slaughter. Dairy producers face a lot of pharmaceutical
testing. Every tanker of milk is tested, and many cull cows are tested.
While it may have seemed reasonable at one point to treat her and try to
save her, maybe those efforts did not pay off and now, the producer has a
cow that cannot be sold, but is sick. They can keep trying and hope, or if
the prognosis is dire, producers are encouraged to provide humane
euthanasia. Having an on farm death may be the only option remaining.
To grow a replacement heifer takes about two years. One of the largest
determinants of the degree of herd turn over is the number of replacements
ready to come into the milking string. When working hard on a farm to
ensure heifers are raised properly and bred at the right time and you have
success, the farm cull rate increases or the farm grows its population.
When the farm cannot grow, the producer makes room for promising young
animals by removing older animals that might not be producing as well or
might be exhibiting more problems.
With bees, it seems the deaths are more of a surprise to most beekeepers.
Alternative careers such as providing meat are not options. The number of
dead hives may rival the number of dead dairy cows, but there are a lot
more dairy cows in the US. The percentage of turnover between the dairy
herd and hive population is similar,but the determinants are very
different.
<https://www.betterbee.com>
Christopher J Cripps, DVM
phone, fax, text: (518) 290-3168
email: [log in to unmask] website: betterbee.com
8 Meader Road
Greenwich, NY 12834
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