By Emily Dart 10C
Farmers are tempted to go organic because of the greater price that organic produce can make. This is because less money is used for the purchase of growth hormones and antibiotics that can’t be used in the production of organic milk. Also the money that farmers receive if they produce organic milk is twice as much as they would receive producing non-organic milk. This is because of the fluctuating price of non-organic milk compared to the steady high price of the organic milk. Also the government subsidise organic farmers the cost of all the extras they need to give the cows, like special feed with nothing that could cause the cow to be considered non-organic.
Organic farmers are not able to give their cows antibiotics. This can cause many problems for the cows. Firstly the problem of the increased probability of illnesses. This would mean that the farmer would either have to stop the use of the cow for the production of organic milk or use a lot of money for another treatment that still complies with the rules for the production of organic dairy products. In non-organic dairy herds antibiotics are used as therapeutics, growth promoters, prophylactics to stop diseases and they also improved digestion. Therefore, without the antibiotics the cows will be more difficult to milk due to there ‘stressed’ state. However, there are some good points to not giving the cows antibiotics. These generally affect humans more than the cows themselves. This is because in normal milk there are some antibiotic residue from the cows themselves causing the problems of antibiotic resistant bacteria being past through the humans who come in contact with these germs some times causing death.
