From
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=291&p=1207&sid=946d1a8aad1bc50bfe074d38bf0e0971#p1207
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Bee-L has an ongoing thread discussing honey production and milk production.

Something tells me the beekeeping community is getting quite distanced from the dairy farmers. No one seems to realize that they are comparing apples to oranges. One person did point out that today's higher milk producing cows 'burn out' within a few years, compared to the longevity in prior years, but they didn't recognize the 'why' behind increased milk production and the cows burning out faster. 

Genetics is NOT the significant reason for increased milk production.

Bovine somatotropin (bovine growth hormone) is why American cows produce so much more milk. The hormone causes the cows to produce a lot more milk. After a few years being doped up, the cow 'burns out' and can no longer produce any significant quantity of milk, and that cow is replaced by a young cow. (Old data of milk production quite possible may have been based on cows with an average age of 8 or 10, versus today's production numbers being based upon cows that are average of 2-3 years old.) 

Some people speculate that the growth hormone given to cows is causing children drinking the milk to develop faster, girls to start their periods younger, etc.

The United States is the only developed nation to allow people to drink milk from cows given the growth hormone.

Cow bodies produce milk. Bees just collect nectar and turn it into honey. We can't give bees hormones that would make them produce more honey like the hormones we give cows. That is why milk production versus honey production is comparing apples to oranges. We may be trying to breed bees that make more honey, but we are doping up our cows to get the higher production.

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