1. Urban Water Institute Water Policy Conference Delta Fix: Can Agribusiness Afford It?
Geoffrey Vanden Heuvel
Dairy Farmer / Vice-Chairman,
Milk Producers Council
August 24, 2012

2. Fun Facts About Milk and Dairy Cows
Real milk comes from cows
A cow needs to have a calf to start producing milk

3. Fun Facts About Milk and Dairy Cows
A calf:
Weighs about 100 pounds at birth
Walks and starts nursing its mother at about 1 hour after birth
Gains about 2 pounds per day, and is weaned at about 75 days of age
Is ready to breed at 15 months old
The gestation period of a cow is 9 months
So at 2 years old, a cow is ready to have her first calf and start producing milk

4. What Is Milk Made Of? “Average” Holstein cow milk is made up of:
3.5% butterfat
3.2% protein
5% lactose
0.5% minerals
87.8% water

5. What Is Milk Made Of? So in the grocery store:
“Whole milk” is 3.5% butterfat
“Lowfat milk” is 2% butterfat
“Skim milk” is 0.25% butterfat or less

6. Cheese About 40% of California’s milk is manufactured into cheese
Cheese is really the binding together of the protein in milk, 80% of which is casein (or glue), with the butterfat in milk
So when you make cheddar cheese, the butterfat and protein end up in the cheese, and the lactose and non-casein proteins end up in “whey”
“Eating her curds and whey…”

7. Milk and Dairy Products
Milk weighs about 8.6 pounds per gallon
It takes about 1.16 gallons of milk to make 1 pound of cheddar cheese
In California, we produce more than 2 billion pounds of cheese per year (mostly cheddar and mozzarella), which makes up about 20% of the total U.S. production of cheese
We also make about 620 million pounds of butter per year (about 40% of the U.S.), and more than 1 billion pounds of milk powders per year (about 58% of the U.S.)
Only 11-14% of California’s milk is actually sold as fluid milk in the stores

8. Lactose-Free Milk
Do you know how they make “lactose-free” milk for those who are lactose intolerant? I didn’t either, until a few months ago.
At the processing plant, milk is put in a holding tank, and an enzyme is added to the milk, which converts the lactose to fructose. So “lactose-free” milk tastes sweeter because fructose is sweeter than lactose.

9. How About Chocolate Milk? Do You Know Where It Comes From?
“Bessy the Brown Cow”

10. What Cows Eat
A cow is a “ruminant” animal, which means they need a certain amount of forages in their diet
About 40% of a dairy cow’s diet needs to be forage, which consists of alfalfa hay and/or silages
Mature milking cows eat about 50 pounds of “dry matter” per day

11. California’s Dairy Industry
About 1.7 million dairy cows in California
These cows need a lot of forage, including alfalfa hay and silages, to be sustained
Silages cannot be transported long distances because they have a high moisture content
Alfalfa hay is an essential part of sustaining the California dairy herd

12. California’s Dairy Industry
There are 980,000 acres of alfalfa hay production ground in California
75% of the alfalfa produced in California goes to the dairy industry (15% to horses, 5% to export, and the balance to beef, sheep and others)
50% of the alfalfa acres in California are located in regions of the State impacted by the Delta

13. Delta Fix Impacts
Current agricultural water costs to grow alfalfa range from $35 per acre-foot to $75 per acre-foot
Studies have indicated that the Delta fix will add $180 per acre-foot to the cost of agricultural water

14. Delta Fix Impacts
Growing alfalfa in the Central Valley requires about 4-5 acre-feet of water per acre of alfalfa.
500,000 acres of alfalfa in the CV = million acre-feet
$180 per acre-foot X 2 million acre-feet = $360 million
The dairy industry is highly regulated. There is no method of “recapturing” this $360 million from our customers
This seems like a problem

15. Economic Value of the Dairy Industry to California
The California Milk Advisory Board has analyzed the economic impact of the California dairy industry:
$63 billion in economic impact
443,000 jobs
For every job on the farm, another 22 jobs are created beyond the farm

16. No alfalfa No dairy industry
Bottom Line
No alfalfa
No dairy industry

17. Thank You. Questions?