Tomorrow is now

I came away from the Dairy UK conference, “The Way Ford” in Birmingham, UK thinking, what a brave new world we live in. Despite milk and dairy products being thousands of years old, the technology today is breathtaking. It was the presentation on the future of dairy bovine genetics that fascinated me. We normally don’t have much to do to with the mechanics of how the milk is produced in this magazine, but it was very interesting to hear what leaps and bounds are going on in all areas of dairy, from cow on down.

Scientists now have the ability, through genomic mapping, to shorten the proving time of bulls from five years (two cycles of daughters) to two years. Other developments are improving the health of the cows themselves during their milking lifespan. It’s an enormous leap forward. Not sure how I can continue to wrap my Texas Instruments calculator brain around such developments, but I suspect they’ll soon be able to map bulls in the womb and thus avoid the two years. “We are the cusp of a new age in biotechnology,” said David Alvis, the lead technologist at the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. No doubt.

The meeting was strongly R&D themed, as DairyCo announced a £5 million move to partner with two consortiums on future issues of cow health – basically making a better dairy farm and cow. They are not alone – other people around the globe (step forward Danone in the US) are realising that to get the most out of the dairy industry and the milk supply, research and investment has to occur up and down the chain. The dairy industry is stepping up to the challenge of making the most of its resources, and it is very heartening to see.