Photo of the day – Golden Girls

cows

Photo by Alan Hopps – A herd of jersey cows graze contentedly on a hillside in Jerrettspass

I was tempted to call this ‘cows take over the Windows XP desktop’. As we lumber from one political crisis to the next and it is doom all round it is nice to concentrate on the things we are good at. Ireland North & South produces the best diary products in the world, all that rain gives us lush green grass and happy cows. It is well worth having a click through Alan’s photos he has some great shots of farming life, even a vegetarian city boy like me enjoyed them immensely.

Facts about…Northern Ireland’s Dairy Industry from the Dairy Council

• There are 3,363 dairy farms in Northern Ireland
• There is a dairy cow population of 284,400, with an average of 75 dairy cows per herd
• The gross milk yield per dairy cow in 2009 was 6350 litres
• Dairy cows produced an average of 1.77 billion litres of milk in 2009
• The total value of the output of milk in 2009 was £353 million
• Northern Ireland’s dairy sector employs approximately 2318 people
• Milk and milk products have a current turnover of £692 million
• Northern Ireland’s main milk product is milk powder
• More than 80% of Northern Ireland’s milk and milk products are exported creating sales of approximately £280 million


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