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Comment by cglace | Hacker News Reader

Isn't there something more useful they could do with that milk than pour it away?

It would have to be a non-food application, if we are trying to isolate the antibiotics. The only non-food application of milk that I am aware of is casein plastics.

And casein paint. Non-toxic, solvent free; used in 'traditional' building, along with other wonderful materials like lime plaster and wattle and daub.

Yes it can be sold as Class B product (not organic) (usually to cheese manufacturers). It just can't be sold as organic.

I think 'wasting' it is good. Once you find something useful for it, it perverts the incentives. A sick cow should be considered a complete waste with no benefit.

I think there is a lot of ground between pouring something down the drain and it being worth its weight in gold.

When I was young we'd always spray the kittens with it. (I grew up on a dairy farm, fortunately we got rid of the cows when I was about 7)

They loved the whole situation.

Why fortunately?

If mitchty is like all the former dairy farmers I know, it's because dairy farming is a lot of hard work, and it never ends. There are no weekends, and no holidays. I like raising beef cattle because many days you don't even have to look at them. (Not today though! Ice to break on the pond, for starters...)

I can agree with this 100% - much of my family out in Iowa raises dairy. They never get a vacation. Ever.

In regards to the announcement, without teeth, this won't cause any changes. External enforcement is absolutely necessary to make this stick.

Yep, you're both 100% right. Dairy cattle are basically a prison sentence.

We had regular cattle too, those amounted to looking at the pasture they're in and moving them around. Way less upkeep.

Don't break it, skate on it.

Generally a bad idea when the cows need the pond to drink.

Haha yeah we try to use different ponds for those two purposes. Actually when possible I prefer to keep cattle out of ponds entirely for environmental reasons, but faucets freeze too. I have a feeling that by the time this winter starts, I'll be hoping for some global warming.

What kind of beef cattle do you raise? I'm trying to track down heritage breeds but having some trouble. If you have any leads please contact me through the email address in my profile.

Red Angus, with some commercial cattle as ET recips. I don't know anything about "heritage" breeds. I'd recommend Red Angus for all but the very hottest parts of the USA (and other nations at similar latitudes): they tolerate heat better than Black Angus but after all most of the genetics did come from Scotland! They are very docile, and the breed organization emphasizes valuable commercial traits like calving ease, weight gain, and ribeye area. Red Angus bulls are a great cross if your herd needs better carcasses, maternal characteristics, or thriftiness. See http://redangus.org/ for more info.

Unfortunately, cow milk is only useful as a human beverage.

I see a new market for milk baths!

Yeah, but then everyone will want organic milk baths, so they won't be able to use the milk for that either

Or a cow beverage. Could this milk be useful for feeding to calves?

Thanks, Crito. I glad someone else sees the absurdity of drinking another animal's milk.

Possibly composted. That's about it.

Bacteria is needed for composting to happen. Milk with antibiotics in it would hurt that process.

If you're in a professional ag setting (farm, etc), that small amount of milk (and even smaller amount of antibiotics in said milk) should pale in comparison to the amount of material in your compost setup. Should be fine, although I'm willing to test this theory out.

Disclaimer: I'm not a farmer, but I do manage the IT/automation of my/a family farm.

This seems like exactly the kind of "slowly and steadily select for antibiotic resistance in bacteria" behavior that they're trying to avoid with these changes.

Maybe

But below a certain concentration some antibiotics won't have an effect hence, no evolutionary pressure

If at the concentration presented it kills/affects some bacteria, yes, what you mention happens, otherwise it doesn't.

Of course, I may be wrong

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