COW FARM

Modern cows are the result of thousands of years of human management by peoples in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The welfare of cows has severely worsened over the last century, with the rise of factory-farmed cows in the Global North. But food systems are changeable, and there are things individuals and groups can do to make life better for cows and the planet. One step is to learn more about how cows are farmed. Read on to learn about the history of cattle farming, and the problems that today’s farms cause for cows, for humans, and for the environment.

Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that goes back to the early Neolithic era, around the seventh millennium BC, in many regions of Europe and Africa. Before the 20th century, milking was done by hand on small farms. Beginning in the early 20th century, milking was done in large scale dairy farms with innovations including rotary parlors, the milking pipeline, and automatic milking systems that were commercially developed in the early 1990s.