The Present and Future for Dairy Production

Abstract

In accepting this assignment, one question kept cycling back to me as I considered what dimensions of the dairy outlook to emphasize. That question was "Why? -Why are the veterinarians concerned with the future of dairy production?" You can probably specify better reasons than I can, but here are a couple.

1. Since the livelihood of many of you is pretty closely related to the size and location of the dairy industry, the future of milk production is obviously pretty close to your own vested interest.
2. The problems and the emphasis in research and practice that come to your profession are partly influenced by what is happening in the milk industry. Therefore, as you as a profession plan for the future, you require a perspective on key trends across the milk industry.

Initially, I'd like to make the assumption that we are talking about dairy production and the dairy industry only in the United States. But to make that assumption, I believe that we need a quick overview of where the U.S. milk industry stands relative to the rest of the world. In this year of 1974, we will be producing almost exactly 115 billion pounds of milk in this country. That happens to be just about 15 percent of the nearly 772 billion pounds of cow's milk that will be produced in the major dairy countries around the world this year. We can note in passing here that cow's milk accounts for about 90% of the world's milk supply, with sheep, goats and some other species producing the remainder.