How much feed is needed to make a gallon of milk?

Question

How much feed is needed to make a gallon of milk?

Answer 1

Gena's cow would consume about 55 pounds of roughage and produce up to 22 pounds of milk per milking or about 44 pounds per day or 5 gallons per day or about 11 pounds of roughage per gallon of milk.  She did not say if this was on pasture or silage and how much moisture is in this silage.

U.S. cows milking 100 pounds of milk per day (11.6 gallons) may consume up to 52 pounds of dry matter of feed or about 4.5 pounds of dry matter feed per gallon of milk.  The production of milk can vary depending on the size of the cows and breed and genetic ability.  My basis here is assumed on a mature Holstein cow.

Answer 2

As much as the cow needs to eat!!! This has to be calculated according to the weight of the cow etc.

It is very strange the way you worded this question. It takes time too of course

Answer 3

Depends on the species (Do you want goat milk, cow milk, llama milk...?), type of feed (concentrates, forages, or a mix of both...all of which also vary depending on the area and season), the individual animal's genetics (dairy cows produce a vastly larger amount of milk than do beef cows, and there are differences between breeds and genetic lines within the breeds as well), and the stage of lactation (production starts small, increases, and then decreases about the time of normal weaning).  There is also a factor of chemicals that are used in the production world to maintain peak lactation later on into the cycle.  If you want to get REALLY obnoxious, you could then go into the type of milk (whole vs. skim et cetera).  In other words....it's complicated. :-)

(I have worked with cows who eat an average of 25kg roughage per day and produce between 5 and 10 kg of milk per milking...not sure what that converts to in gallons.)

Answer 4

ask your mother