When I was a child, I was raised on a dairy farm. When I was in university one of my professors was T.K. Warley who was pivotal in creating our supply management policies and I wrote a paper on improving the efficiencies of the supply management system. While I have been out of both the dairy industry and academe for too many years to speak about the current state of the subject, I can at least with a level of gravitas on the state during the 70s and early 80s.
Dairy farming was the poorer segment in contrast to other areas in the agriculture industry. Dairy farmers worked seven days of the week, awaking and going to work at six am and not ending their work day until at least 12 hours later. At some times of the year, the workday would continue until about 11 pm. One advantage that dairy farmers had was that they could anticipate a paycheque once or twice per month. In contrast beef farmers had one huge paycheque once per year (after they shipped their cattle to market). The biggest redeeming feature in the Canadian Dairy Industry (which is not isolated to Quebec but in the other provinces as well) are marketing boards which set the price of milk. Marketing boards work because they set the price of a commodity (eg. dairy) which is paid by the processors. However they also set the supply of the commodity with the producers ... Supply Management.
Health Risks Because of the Dairy Industry?
If one must understand why the dairy industry needs to be well managed one must look at the history not just the economics of the industry.
New Brunswick's infant mortality rates in the early 1920s were the highest in Canada; for every 1,000 babies born, a staggering 150 would die before their second birthdays. Babies in the rest of the country didn't fare much better. Blamed were dairy cows with bovine tuberculosis and unsanitary milk, so teeming with deadly bacteria it was often called white poison...Toronto was the first city to pass mandatory pasteurization bylaws in 1915, with Saint John and Saskatoon following in 1923. It would take another 40 years for the laws to spread across Canada and be complemented with a program to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, but the impact was dramatic. Infant mortality rates plummeted and Canada gained an international reputation for its work to create a safe milk supply.
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Why do I bring up ancient history?
1,200 cattle destroyed in Canadian tuberculosis outbreak ... Wednesday, November 30th, 2016
According to the Calgary Herald, Osadczuk learned Sept. 22 that one of his cows had tested positive for bovine TB. Since then, every domestic animal associated with the Osadczuk ranch have been destroyed – including horses, cats and dogs.
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One of the responsibilities of the Canadian Dairy Industry is to maintain mandatory testing of cattle for any outbreak of infectious disease. People do not have a memory of outbreaks of TB. My uncle had purchased a single cow in the 1940s that had TB. Every animal on his property was destroyed.
Brucellosis (undulant fever) can cause spontaneous abortion in humans Source. The USA falls far short of Canada in its control.
In the United States, [it has] 100-200 human cases reported each year.
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Much of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Western Europe have eradicated brucellosis from their livestock.
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Canada's testing of its dairy products is far more vigorous that products from the USA.
As well, our maximum Somatic Cell Count (SCC) is also lower than the American standard. What is a SCC? It’s the total number of cells per milliliter in milk. Primarily, SCC is composed of leukocytes, or white blood cells, that are produced by the cow’s immune system to fight an inflammation. It’s a way we measure milk quality. For example, a reduced count of SCC is associated with better quality milk. Often if the count is high, it means the cow might be sick. Our maximum allowable is 400,000. Our provincial average is well below this maximum at 205,000. In Canada, each load of milk is tested to ensure it’s below that standard. In the USA, the national standard is 750,000...
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One aspect of the Canadian Dairy Industry is that our herd sizes are economically viable at about 100 cows per farm. The milk is tested at the farm (in the case of robotic farms is tested at the cow) and the milk can be rejected at the source. Due to the economics of the American model, they need to achieve economies of scale ... with the largest being 30,000 cows on a single farm Source. Thirty thousand cows is sufficient to supply milk for over 2 million people. If a single cow contracts TB would they be willing to dispose all those cows? If a few cows develop brucellosis and contaminate the milk supply, and that milk is shipped to Canada...
I mentioned at the top of the article about the working conditions of the Canadian dairy farmer as I recall it. Fortunately they have started to implement robotic farming.
Here is an interesting article about why China wants to buy Canadian milk:
"They had a choice to go to any country in the world and they chose Canada because of the ability for us to supply the milk and it's known to be of the highest-quality — safe, reliable milk," he said. "We're always surprised at how other countries are concerned about our system."
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