Dairy
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also describe a dairy farm or the part of a mixed farm dedicated to milk for human consumption, whether from cows, buffaloes, goats, yaks, sheep, horses or camels.
The attributive dairy describes milk-based products, derivatives, and processes, and the animals and workers involved in their production, for example dairyman, dairymaid, dairy cattle or dairy goat. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it into a variety of dairy products. These establishments constitute the global dairy industry, part of the food industry.
The word dairy comes from an Old English word for female servant, as milking was historically done by dairymaids.
Terminology
Terminology differs between countries. In the United States, for example, an entire dairy farm is commonly called a "dairy". The building or farm area where milk is harvested from the cow is often called a "milking parlor" or "parlor", except in the case of smaller dairies, where cows are often put on pasture, and usually milked in "stanchion barns". The farm area where milk is stored in bulk tanks is known as the farm's "milk house". Milk is then hauled to a "dairy plant", also referred to as a "dairy", where raw milk is further processed and prepared for commercial sale of dairy products.In New Zealand, farm areas for milk harvesting are also called "milking parlours", and are historically known as "milking sheds". As in the United States, sometimes milking sheds are referred to by their type, such as "herring bone shed" or "pit parlour". Parlour design has evolved from simple barns or sheds to large rotary structures in which the workflow is very efficiently handled. In some countries, especially those with small numbers of animals being milked, the farm may perform the functions of a dairy plant, processing their own milk into saleable dairy products, such as butter, cheese, or yogurt. This on-site processing is a traditional method of producing specialist milk products, common in Europe.
In the United States a dairy can also be a place that processes, distributes and sells dairy products, or a room, building or establishment where milk is stored and processed into milk products, such as butter or cheese. In New Zealand English the singular use of the word dairy almost exclusively refers to a corner shop, or superette. This usage is historical as such shops were a common place for the public to buy milk products.
History
Milk producing animals have been domesticated for thousands of years. Initially, they were part of the subsistence farming that nomads engaged in. As the community moved about the country, their animals accompanied them. Protecting and feeding the animals were a major part of the symbiotic relationship between the animals and the herders.In the more recent past, people in agricultural societies owned dairy animals that they milked for domestic and local consumption, a typical example of a cottage industry. The animals might serve multiple purposes. In this case, the animals were normally milked by hand and the herd size was quite small, so that all of the animals could be milked in less than an hour—about 10 per milker. These tasks were performed by a dairymaid or dairyman. The word dairy harkens back to Middle English dayerie, deyerie, from deye and further back to Old English dæge.
With industrialisation and urbanisation, the supply of milk became a commercial industry, with specialised breeds of cattle being developed for dairy, as distinct from beef or draught animals. Initially, more people were employed as milkers, but it soon turned to mechanisation with machines designed to do the milking.
Historically, the milking and the processing took place close together in space and time: on a dairy farm. People milked the animals by hand; on farms where only small numbers are kept, hand-milking may still be practised. Hand-milking is accomplished by grasping the teats in the hand and expressing milk either by squeezing the fingers progressively, from the udder end to the tip, or by squeezing the teat between thumb and index finger, then moving the hand downward from udder towards the end of the teat. The action of the hand or fingers is designed to close off the milk duct at the udder end and, by the movement of the fingers, close the duct progressively to the tip to express the trapped milk. Each half or quarter of the udder is emptied one milk-duct capacity at a time.
The stripping action is repeated, using both hands for speed. Both methods result in the milk that was trapped in the milk duct being squirted out the end into a bucket that is supported between the knees of the milker, who usually sits on a low stool.
Traditionally the cow, or cows, would stand in the field or paddock while being milked. Young stock, heifers, would have to be trained to remain still to be milked. In many countries, the cows were tethered to a post and milked.
Structure of the industry
While most countries produce their own milk products, the structure of the dairy industry varies in different parts of the world. In major milk-producing countries most milk is distributed through whole sale markets. In Ireland and Australia, for example, farmers' co-operatives own many of the large-scale processors, while in the United States many farmers and processors do business through individual contracts. In the United States, the country's 196 farmers' cooperatives sold 86% of milk in the U.S. in 2002, with five cooperatives accounting for half that. This was down from 2,300 cooperatives in the 1940s. In developing countries, the past practice of farmers marketing milk in their own neighbourhoods is changing rapidly. Notable developments include considerable foreign investment in the dairy industry and a growing role for dairy cooperatives. Output of milk is growing rapidly in such countries and presents a major source of income growth for many farmers.As in many other branches of the food industry, dairy processing in the major dairy producing countries has become increasingly concentrated, with fewer but larger and more efficient plants operated by fewer workers. This is notably the case in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In 2009, charges of antitrust violations have been made against major dairy industry players in the United States, which critics call "Big Milk". Another round of price fixing charges was settled in 2016.
Government intervention in milk markets was common in the 20th century. A limited antitrust exemption was created for U.S. dairy cooperatives by the Capper–Volstead Act of 1922. In the 1930s, some U.S. states adopted price controls, and Federal Milk Marketing Orders started under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 and continue in the 2000s. The Federal Milk Price Support Program began in 1949. The Northeast Dairy Compact regulated wholesale milk prices in New England from 1997 to 2001.
Plants producing liquid milk and products with short shelf life, such as yogurts, creams and soft cheeses, tend to be located on the outskirts of urban centres close to consumer markets. Plants manufacturing items with longer shelf life, such as butter, milk powders, cheese and whey powders, tend to be situated in rural areas closer to the milk supply. Most large processing plants tend to specialise in a limited range of products. Exceptionally, however, large plants producing a wide range of products are still common in Eastern Europe, a holdover from the former centralised, supply-driven concept of the market under Communist governments.
As processing plants grow fewer and larger, they tend to acquire bigger, more automated and more efficient equipment. While this technological tendency keeps manufacturing costs lower, the need for long-distance transportation often increases the environmental impact.
Milk production is irregular, depending on cow biology. Producers must adjust the mix of milk which is sold in liquid form vs. processed foods depending on changing supply and demand.
Milk supply contracts
In the European Union, milk supply contracts are regulated by Article 148 of Regulation 1308/2013 – Establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations No 922/72, No 234/79, No 1037/2001 and No 1234/2007, which permits member states to create a requirement for the supply of milk from a farmer to a raw milk processor to be backed by a written contract, or to ensure that the first purchaser of milk to make a written offer to the farmer, although in this case the farmer may not be required to enter into a contract. Thirteen EU member states including France and Spain have introduced laws on compulsory or mandatory written milk contracts between farmers and processors.In the UK, a voluntary code of best practice on contractual relationships in the dairy sector was agreed by industry during 2012: this set out minimum standards of good practice for contracts between producers and purchasers. The Scottish Government published an analysis of the dairy supply chain and the application of mandatory written contracts across the European Union in 2019, to evaluate the impact of the contracts where they have been adopted. During 2020 the UK government undertook a consultation exercise to determine which contractual measures, if any, would improve the resilience of the dairy industry for the future. Contracts for the delivery of raw milk are now negotiated by groups of farmers, who operate together as recognised Dairy Producer Organisations to agree terms with milk processors on behalf of their members. A recognised DPO must be an independent legal entity and include "at least 10 dairy producers or produce 6 million litres a year, or both".
The Australian government has also introduced a mandatory dairy code of conduct.