From: "Basil R. Eastwood" <BEASTWOOD@cite.esusda.gov>
Organization: Extension Service, USDA
To: ALAMAR@ESUSDA.GOV
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 16:23:18 EST
Subject: bST & technology
Reply-To: beastwood@esusda.gov
Priority: normal
X-Mailer: PMail v3.0 (R1a)
Date sent: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 09:15:02 CST
Send reply to: "Dairy Discussion List." <DAIRY-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU>
From: RBS@AG-ECO.TAMU.EDU
Subject: bST & technology
Originally to: dairy-L@umdd.umd.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list DAIRY-L <DAIRY-L@UMDD.UMD.EDU>
I am not an animal scientest; I am an economist. I have been told by
several dairy scientests and a producer or two that have been
involved with bST trials that bST impacts a cow in much the same
manner any other management practice or tool impacts individual milk
yields in cows. If you take a 55 lb. cow and mover her to a herd
where she is fed better and managed better and her yield jumps to 65
pounds then it's the same as using bST on her. The hormone levels in
the two milks from the 65 lb. cows are comparable regardless how the
production increase was accomplished. They tell me that the 55 lb.
cow has less hormone in the the milk than the 62 lb. cow. The
question: Do we need more milk? In a market economy, the prices tell
the producers how much to produce. There are some tremendous
structural shifts taking place in the dairy industry right now. One
of those is the regional transfers of production do to a large extent
the economies of size associated with animal agriculture (dairy,
hogs,beef, chickens) production. We need to change our pricing
structure in dairy to send out consistent signals. It is human nature
to develop new technology. Some work; some don't. bST is no
different. If it is cost effective, it will be used. If it is not, it
will not be used. Do we discard technology because we make a value
judgement that we have too much milk? If we have too much milk maybe
it is too much because the price is too high. If we choose to have
higher prices than will clear the market then it is a value judgement
that we intervene in the system thru quotas or other mechanisms. If
we choose to restrict milk production, limiting technology may be
dangerous, because it will not be too long before we limit all
technolgy and wind up back as cave men. Technology is neither good
nor bad. How it is used depends on society's values. Life is a risk
and we cannot make it riskless. I for one would rather have these
things about bST hashed out in the market than have big brother tell
me what my risk quotient is if I drink milk produced with bST.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BASIL R. EASTWOOD USDA-Ext. Service Ph. (202) 720-6486
Prog. Leader-Dairy 3334 South Bldg. Fax (202) 720-7714
Washington DC 20250 BEASTWOOD@ESUSDA.GOV
-- Agnes Lamar PHONE: 202/720-2420 Office Management Assistant USDA-Extension Service/Agriculture FAX: 202/720-4924 Room 3851-South Bldg Washington, DC 20250-0900 E-MAIL: alamar@esusda.gov