California's Most Unhappy Cows: The Dairy Industry and the Labor of Reproduction

Dry-lot dairying began in the 1950s and 1960s. The reason for its invention was simple: far cheaper to build and operate, greater numbers of cows, more efficient production process, and much higher profit margins. First springing up on the outskirts of large cities - Los Angeles, Phoenix, Honolulu, Tokyo, Madras, Baghdad - , it is called dry-lot because there is no barn, stalls, or pasture. Rather this industry operates in the open with fenced fields of concrete and bare earth. There may, or may not, be shade or wind protection installed during certain months of the year. The average size of an urban lot is between 5 to 15 acres. In more rural areas, though, they grow up to 800 acres. The average number of cows per lot ranges between 500 to 6000.

On these dry-lots, the production is both extensive and intense. Operations are gigantic. Costs are stripped to a bare minimum. Division of labor is high: with (re)producers, milkers, feeders, suppliers, cleaners, manure collectors, brokers, truckers, and veterinarians. The tasks are purposely repetitive. The pace is rapid. Efficiency standards are rigorous. There are daily quotas and weekly performance testing, which are normally outsourced to specialized companies. Working conditions are dismal, unhealthy, and dangerous. Lactation is the primary goal, and it is accomplished through reproduction. The cow is the prime source of labor. Her schedule is 350 days on and 40-50 off. Milking occurs 2 to 3 times per day. The process itself runs on an assembly-line, each session taking as little as 13 minutes. Therein, thousands of gallons of milk are generated on a daily basis. This is lean and mean production. In fact, the annual turnover rate for cows is 40% to 100%. There is nothing "primitive" about this form of accumulation. Rather it is quite laborious and profitable.

Privately, the dairy industry has always recognized and understood this. Whether in their academic textbooks, training manuals, or internal analyses, they consider the actions of the cow to be a form of work. Whether in their economic theory, management strategies, or operational practices, cows are thought of, described, and treated as unwaged employees and workers. Publicly, however, this labor has been devalued, dematerialized, and made invisible. It has been hidden under the guise of "natural." In general, the labor of reproduction of women, as Maria Mies argued in her classic Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale (1986), has met this same fate. As we are told repeatedly, only waged-work (and primarily that done by men) matters. This is a lie.

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