The food cows eat influences the composition of milk. Swiss cows receive high-quality, nutritional feed.
Voluntary agricultural programmes for animal welfare
The Federal Office for Agriculture uses direct payments to remunerate farmers for services
of public and common interest. This includes production system contributions that are linked
to particularly animal-friendly husbandry.(1)
Regular exercise outdoors – RAUS programme
- At least 26 days per month spent in pasture (May to October)
- At least 13 days per month in pasture or outside (winter)
- Alternatively: free-stall access for the whole year
- Time spent outside must be documented in a journal(2)
Particularly animal-friendly housing in stables – BTS programme
- Group husbandry
- Continuous access to lying area and non-littered area
- Daylight of at least 15 lux intensity (street lighting corresponds to approx. 10 lux)(3)
- Compacted ground for eating and drinking area
Swiss milk production figures (4, 5)
- 575,000 dairy cows across Switzerland
- 7,010 litres of milk are produced by an average Swiss dairy each year
- 10 months a year – the average a dairy cow produces milk
- 3.4 billion kilogrammes of milk is the total supplied by Swiss farmers each year
- 21,000 milk producers across Switzerland
- 25 dairy cows per Swiss farm on average
- 48 % of all dairy cows live in free stalls
- 84 % of all dairy cows are in the RAUS (regular exercise outdoors) programme
- 800,000 hectares of grazing land (pastures, meadows) across Switzerland
- 100 kilogrammes of grass are eaten by cows each summer day
- kilogrammes of hay are eaten by cows each winter day
- 50 – 100 litres of water: the amount a cow drinks each day
- 2 milk samples a month are submitted for official, extensive quality checking by each milk producer
- 350,000 cells per millilitre is the Swiss cell count limit (see article "what makes Swiss milk so special")
Further information
Sources
1) www.blw.admin.ch/blw/de/home/instrumente/direktzahlungen.html
2) www.kontrolldienstkut.ch/fileadmin/kut/programme/RAUS/A_Rinder_RAUS-spezifische_Anforderung_an_Stallbereich_und_Auslauf_Version_2017.pdf
3) www.naturallighting.wordpress.com/links/tageslicht-groessen-und-einheiten/
4) LID Landwirtschaftlicher Informationsdienst, Alles über die Schweizer Milch, Ausgabe Juli 2018
5) www.swissmilk.ch