The world's top destroyer of the environment.

[yesman065]

No wonder they are all going mad.

[Tonchi]

This is having a tremendous impact on my area right now. Due to the ravenous march of construction in Southern California, the large dairy companies are relocating to Fresno and Kings county. Even after reading this report, our idiot zoning commissions kept letting them expand to literally thousands of cows at each facility, doing nothing but standing, shitting, and being milked 24/7. When the folks moving into new houses in the same counties began gagging every time they opened the door, somebody finally noticed and they are pretending to do environmental reports now, although the dairy seems to be doing the moving first and the reporting afterwards. One of them has even installed a "cooker" on his site which he claims will produce enough power from the waste (I do not say "manure" and you will know why if you have ever toured a large-scale livestock operation) to run his entire facility and have some left over to sell to the local electric companies. This month it was proclaimed that California has now surpassed Wisconsin in the production of dairy products. Lucky us

[xoxoxoBruce]

I had posted about a farm in VT installing a methane powered generator that supplied over $100,000 in electricity and $60,000 in bedding every year. That's from 500 head of cattle.

Because hot weather and milk production are not conducive, I'm surprised southern CA has taken such a jump in production.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Because hot weather and milk production are not conducive, I'm surprised southern CA has taken such a jump in production.

Those operations burn up cattle at a very fast pace, unfortunately if people insist on living in a desert you will get a lot of nonsense like this. Floridas dairy industry actually buys their replacement cattle up here. It is turning into quite a business. It bears little resemblance to the PA/NY/VT farms with cows spread across the hills. Of course, these intensive farming practices are spreading and concentrating waste around here as well.

I do find it annoying/ironic that that people will move in near farms and then complain about the smell.

[Tonchi]

You would understand how little these mega-producers care about either the cows or the customers after reading something in our paper this morning. Without ever having to pass any legislation, the dairy producers and their purchased politicians have kept the price of dairy products maintained artificially high for nearly 70 years now. They just ran an independent producer out of California, after successfully blocking his sales to Walmart and other chains, because he sold at up to 20 cents less per gallon.

When I lived in Arizona in the 80s, the politicians told all the Arizona dairy producers to get rid of their herds because allegedly the subsidies which kept some of them in business were being eliminated. I don't know to what extent that came true, but hundreds of thousands of perfectly healthy dairy cows were slaughtered, although some international agencies managed to rescue some of them and ship them to desperate Third World countries (and especially Russia), so that they could upgrade their own herds and achieve better food production.

Now the expansion of dairies is back with a vengeance. Stay tuned for the coming environmental disaster as global warming makes Central California an increasingly unpleasant place for these massive herds and the accompanying water polution and insects.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Price controls and subsidies have been a way of life for the dairy industry, forever. OK, not forever, but a hell of a long time....probably back to the depression.

Milk was deemed a crucial commodity (it's for the children!!) and perishable, so it behooved the powers that be (been? were?)...uh, them, to do everything they could to keep the small dairy farmers, that ringed the cities, afloat.

Times change and so has the dairy business. Economics have driven most of the Mom & Pop operations out, in favor of corporate farms with large herds and good, safe, refrigerated, transportation. But bureaucrats being bureaucrats, and corporate farms being politically active, have kept the subsidies and price controls in place........it's for the children, don't forget.