A s dairies expand, tracking necessary information on individual cows becomes a challenge. It no longer is easy to remember peculiarities of individual cows and each day more information piles up but decisions still have to be made. Many failed expansion dairies can trace their demise to no program or inadequate programs to collect and manage the correct information for decision making. I n several areas of the US very large dairies have evolved and are now common place. Each site may house and milk 1000-2000 cows or more and operators are not intimidated by such large numbers of cattle.
Work tends to be very compartmentalized and specialized.
Milkers basically milk cows. They don't feed cows, raise calves or do field work. They milk cows. Dairymen in such areas have grown familiar with dairies of this size and large scale seems natural. Such dairies are very efficient and generally produce huge volumes of very high quality milk.