How the Golden State became the nation’s dairy capital despite climate challenges and strict environmental regulations.
By Cam Kauffman
When Americans think of the farms where their milk, cheese and yogurt come from, images of cows grazing, or eating corn in the middle of Wisconsin, come to mind. But the nation’s top milk-producing state is actually California, which accounted for nearly 18.5% of total dairy production in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 1970, California accounted for just over 8% of milk production in the United States, ranking it fifth nationally behind Wisconsin, Texas, New York and Idaho. But in 1993, California surged past Wisconsin to first place due to a variety of factors that experts called “unique” to the state’s agricultural landscape. Although it may have some favorable aspects for dairy farming, California’s strict environmental laws have posed a threat to the industry’s livelihood.
One factor that experts say contributed to the state’s increased production is the special diet California cows have compared to other states.
Many of the other top milk-producing states, including Wisconsin and New York, thrive off of feeding corn and alfalfa to their cows. These crops are typically grown either on dairy farms themselves or dairy farmers will buy them from other farmers to feed their cows. Regardless of the process a farmer uses, it can cost up to half of a dairy’s profits just to feed the cows.
Although California also produces a decent amount of corn, UC Davis Animal Science professor Frank Mitloehner said the Golden State’s fruit and vegetable production is the real key to its thriving dairy industry.
Although California is the No. 1 producer of fruits, vegetables and nuts in the country, according to USDA statistics, there is only a portion of each plant that is actually sold in stores or used to make other products. The rest of it — like the shell or the seed — is inedible… for humans, that is.
Cows, on the other hand, have special stomachs that can digest these products.
“They can make use of it and nobody else can.”
— Frank Mitloehner
“They can make use of it and nobody else can,” Mitloehner said. “The majority of the plant is a co-product or a byproduct that normally would just rot under the sun if it weren’t for ruminant animals that can make use of a lot of these.”
One product in particular that cows eat in California is the almond hull, which is the outer shell that grows around the nut before it’s harvested. This shell is eventually taken off before the almond is sold, and instead of discarding the hulls, almond farmers can sell them to dairy farmers for cheap.
“You can’t burn them, and you can’t landfill them, but you can feed them to cows,” said Christopher Wolf, a Cornell University food and agricultural economics professor.
Hear more from Frank Mitloehner on cows' special diets.
According to research conducted by UC Davis, almond hulls have an overall nutritional value equal to alfalfa without having a negative impact on the cow’s milk production.
Other products that California dairy cows eat that are unavailable to Wisconsin and New York dairy farmers include citrus pulp, cotton seeds and winemaking byproducts.
Albert Straus, CEO of Straus Family Creamery, which gets its milk from 13 different organic dairy farms throughout Marin and Sonoma counties, said he feeds his cows a mixture of almond hulls, tofu byproducts and Greek yogurt byproducts, among other things, while still allowing them to graze on grass in the pasture.
Straus said this special diet does not have much of an effect on the cows’ overall livelihood, and is similar to the nutritional value of the food that cows in other states eat.
Brian Fiscalini, CEO of Fiscalini Farmstead, seconded this point.
“Across the United States, actually, the diet that the cows consume on paper are very similar,” Fiscalini said. “If you were to read your nutritional label on whatever food you're making or whatever meal you’re making, you're going to have protein, you’re going have carbohydrates, you’re going to have fat, all the way down to vitamins and minerals. A cow’s diet is similar.”
Fiscalini said he grows 70% of the feed for his cows on his farm, but the other 30% consists of, among other things, almond hulls, vitamins, minerals and grape pomace, a byproduct of winemaking made of grape seeds and skins.
Cows on Fiscalini Farm graze on feed that is 70% home-grown corn, wheat and wheat hay while the rest is byproducts from other California agricultural industries. (Photo courtesy of Fiscalini Farmstead)
Another advantage that California dairy farmers have is their relatively inexpensive cost of maintenance due to the state’s fair weather accompanied by the larger herd sizes compared to other states.
With a lack of heavy rains and relatively warm weather year round, California dairy farmers don’t have to battle the cold winter months like Wisconsin and New York farmers do. This, in turn, means California farmers have lower costs associated with housing the cows.
“You have to have a lot of maintenance associated with buildings and the silos that you need to keep running in the winter (in Wisconsin),” said Michel Wattiaux, a dairy systems management professor at the University of Wisconsin. “California is a place where, just because of the weather, it’s a lot easier to just put a fence around the cows and you’re fine.”
Fiscalini houses his cows in free-stall barns, which are roofed buildings typically without side walls that provide cows a comfortable place to lie down and rest. Although California’s mild winters are not an issue for his cows, Fiscalini said the heat can be.
More than 1,500 cows get milked three times per day on Fiscalini Farm in Modesto. (Photo courtesy of Fiscalini Farmstead)
“We don’t necessarily worry about the winter, we worry about the summer,” Fiscalini said. “We have to really think about the hottest times of the year and how we’re going to mitigate the stress that that can have on the animals.” He said he uses increased ventilation, water misters and large fans to cool his cows during the warmer months.
In addition, Wolf, Wattiaux and Mitloehner said California’s larger-than-most herd size also contributes to dairy farms’ relatively lower costs.
California averages over 1,500 cows per herd, which is more than 1,200 cows greater than Wisconsin’s and New York’s average herd sizes.
California’s large herd size contributes to what experts call "economies of scale." Essentially, the larger the herd, the more production a dairy farm will have, which leads to proportionately lower costs associated with maintaining the operation.
“The costs that apply to any dairies, large or small, can be watered down because they are divided up by a large number of animals,” Mitloehner said.
Fiscalini’s farm has 1,500 cows, and he said he has generally been able to produce his product cheaper than someone who has fewer cows.
But with all of California dairy farmers’ triumphs, the industry still has its challenges, including the state’s strict environmental laws regarding emissions.
One way the Golden State’s legislature has attempted to force farmers with livestock to reduce their environmental impact is by the passage of Senate Bill 1383 in 2016. The bill states that farmers must reduce methane emissions “by up to 40% below the dairy sector and livestock sector’s 2013 levels by 2030.”
A 40% methane emissions reduction from 2013 levels is equivalent to about nine million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the California Air Resources Board’s 2022 analysis of the state’s progress toward SB 1383’s goal. To put it simply, just one million metric ton of carbon dioxide is roughly equal to the “average annual emissions of 35 commercial airliner, 216,000 passenger vehicles, and 115,000 homes in the United States,” according to Nature Journal.
Cows produce methane in two main ways: through enteric fermentation (a polite way to say passing gas) and through manure management.
Because California’s dairy and livestock sectors produce more than half of the state’s methane emissions and because methane gas is the second leading cause of climate change, the bill sets forth regulations to reduce these emissions from manure management operations on farms and provides monetary incentives to farmers who do so.
Before the bill, many farmers would store their cows’ manure in manure lagoons, which are pond-like earthen basins meant to collect it. These lagoons are typically uncovered, which allows for all of the methane gas produced by the manure’s decomposition to escape into the atmosphere. Instead, SB 1383 aims to make farmers trap the methane gas produced by this by capping their lagoons.
Straus Organic Dairy Farm's methane biodigester converts the methane from cows' manure into electricity. The black cover caps the manure lagoon to trap the methane gas before it is sent through the digester. (Photo courtesy of Straus Family Farms)
Farmers can do this by building a complex structure called an anaerobic digester, which traps manure into an airtight container and collects the methane as the manure decays.
Straus’ dairy farm has one that helps him reduce its environmental impact by up to 1,380 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, according to Straus’ website. This is equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from 307 gas-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year.
“It’s all about minimizing our environmental impact and giving back to the earth,” Straus said.
Fiscalini also has a methane digester on his farm that he installed in 2008 – far before SB1383 came around – mainly to help make his operation be more environmentally friendly and appealing to customers.
Later, farmers can sell the methane to gas companies where it can be turned into energy or fuel used to power gas stoves and houses, among other things. Selling the methane, in turn, can help farmers pay for the cost of the installation of the digester.
Brian Fiscalini, CEO of Fiscalini Farmstead, stands near some of his dairy cows at his farm in Modesto, California. (Photo courtesy of Fiscalini Farmstead)
“The secondary driver (of installing the methane digester) was we thought that we could make a lot of money with the byproduct from methane gas – electricity or renewable natural gas,” Fiscalini said.
Mitloehner said methane digesters are important to ensure dairy farms’ future.
"We’re taking something that used to be a liability on a dairy,” Mitloehner said of the manure lagoons’ emissions, “and we are making it into a fuel, which is a utility.”
Fiscalini’s methane digester turns his cows’ manure into electricity that powers his entire operation, which includes electric feeders, a cheesemaking plant and other buildings on the farm, and it also powers 300 nearby homes in Modesto.
Hear more from Christopher Wolf about California's implementation of methane digesters.
Wattiaux called methane digesters the way of the future, despite there not being a large amount of them across the country yet.
“The biodigester is probably the single most important technology that could be used to help reach toward carbon neutrality,” Wattiaux said. “It’s going to be a huge challenge to get there, but it helps us go in that direction.”
The International Energy Agency predicts that small-scale household digesters will one day be sold across the world as a way for more people to take part in reducing carbon emissions.
With about 40 million consumers in California, many of whom drink cow milk, and eat cheese, yogurt or butter, and with the improvements dairy farmers in the state are making to reduce their environmental impacts, it seems that the Golden State dairy industry isn’t going anywhere for the time being. It may even stay No. 1.
