DAIRY CATTLE
More than 4,000 dairy farms in Ontario produce over $1.8 billion worth of milk annually,
and considering all farm gate receipts, dairy is the largest economic sector of Ontario
agriculture.1 Average dairy herd sizes have become larger and average milk production
per cow has increased, with 270,000 cows producing 2.5 billion litres of milk per year.
Modern dairy herd management, with confined free-stall housing and automated robotic
milking systems, has created new challenges in herd health management, as cows
are housed at higher densities and are placed under greater metabolic stres