By Cyndee Fontana and Lesli A. Maxwell Quite simply, today's dairy business presents a broad target for critics and regulators. In California, the nation's No. 1 milk-producing state, it's a big business with billions of dollars at stake. The trend is toward fewer dairies and more cows.
Dairymen say they are trying to spread the cost of sophisticated operations over bigger herds.
That means California packs them in like no other state, even second-place Wisconsin. California's are more than six times that. Sheer numbers overwhelm the regulators hired to monitor them. Only recently have federal regulators zeroed in on dairies' potential to taint soil and water. Counties generally monitor dairies, review proposals and field complaints.