🧑‍🌾 Farmer

A farmer is a person who owns or runs a farm. On a dairy farm, the farmer is responsible for the herd, the feed, the animals' health and the milk yield — how much milk the farm produces. The farmer decides which cows to keep, what to feed them, what machinery to buy and who to sell the milk to.

Working with animals has no days off: cows are fed and milked every day. The farmer looks after the health of the herd and helps with calvings, when calves are born. The farmer plans breeding so that the herd stays the right size. On a small farm, the farmer does almost everything alone. On a large one, the farmer manages workers: milkers, a livestock specialist, a vet and a mechanic.

Dairy farming is one of the most common kinds of farming in the world. According to the FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), about 150 million households are involved in producing milk. In most developing countries, milk comes from small family farms. From 1992 to 2022, world milk production grew from 524 to 930 million tonnes. Some farmers sell their milk themselves, at a market or in a farm shop.