Dairy cows produce twenty percent more milk when the days grow longer

Nature
Dairy cows produce twenty percent more milk when the days grow longer

Longer periods of daylight trigger biological shifts in dairy cows that boost milk production by twenty percent, a phenomenon driven by hormonal changes that mirror the human circadian rhythm.

Dairy cows experience a significant surge in milk production as daylight hours increase during the spring. This biological response, known as photoperiodism, occurs when sixteen hours of light stimulate a thirty percent increase in the secretion of prolactin, a key hormone for lactation. In the European Union, this natural cycle results in yields twenty percent higher than winter baselines.

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