Holstein

The Holstein is the dairy cow most people picture, and it earned that position on volume. The breed comes from Friesland and Holstein in the Netherlands and northern Germany, where two thousand years of selection on marshland grazing produced a black and white animal bred for milk and nothing else.

No other breed gives as much. A Holstein produces more litres per lactation than any other dairy cow, which is why she dominates commercial dairying worldwide.

Bull calves and cull cows also feed a real share of the beef supply, and Holstein-beef crosses have become a deliberate strategy rather than a by-product.

The trade is everything that volume costs. Butterfat and protein percentages are the lowest of the major dairy breeds, so a farm paid on components rather than litres will feel it. She eats accordingly, she is a large animal to keep sound, and productive life in a commercial herd is short.