🇨🇦 The cattle breeds of Canada

Canada keeps close to a million dairy cows, most of them on large farms in Quebec and Ontario, the two provinces that together make 70% of the country's milk. Milking is organised by a quota system that matches output to demand and shields farm prices, a setup praised for stable incomes and criticised at the trade table. Farm numbers have fallen since 1971 while herds have grown.

• 967,700 dairy cows on 10,679 farms in 2018
• Quebec makes 37% of Canada's milk; Ontario 33%
• Two thirds of Canadian milk is sold as drinking milk
• Palm oil feed blamed for harder butter in 2021's Buttergate
• Dairy causes a fifth of livestock farming's greenhouse gases

Cattle in Canada

Canadian cattle keeping is above all a dairy story. Milk cows are found in every province, and in seven of the ten, dairy ranks among the two biggest farm commodities. Yet the number of farms keeps falling: there were about 10,700 in 2018, down steadily since 1971, while the average herd has grown to 89 cows. Farmers do not simply milk as they please; production is planned to match demand through a shared federal-provincial system, and imports are limited by tariffs. Trade with the United States shades in at the edges too: processed foods sold in Canada may contain milk ingredients from American cows treated with a growth hormone that Canadian farmers do not use.

Regions and communities

Quebec leads, with 5,120 dairy farms yielding 37% of the nation's milk, and Ontario follows at 3,534 farms and 33%; together the two provinces set the tone of Canadian dairying. Dairy is nonetheless present everywhere: provinces each run their own marketing boards, and by 1983 every province except Newfoundland had joined the national milk marketing plan. Climate divides the country too. Farms in the west emit less greenhouse gas than eastern ones, a difference put down to climate and how raw milk is handled; the eastern provinces account for 78.5% of the emissions from dairy farming.

Milk, butter and beef

About two thirds of Canadian milk is sold as drinking milk; the rest goes into processed goods such as cheese and butter. Butter matters enough that a national row broke out over it in 2021. Demand for butter climbed during the pandemic, and cooks complained that blocks stayed stubbornly firm at room temperature; later studies gave some support to the idea that a palm oil feed supplement can harden butter. High shop prices under the managed system may also be nudging some drinkers towards almond or soy alternatives.

Today

In 2018 Canada counted 967,700 dairy cows on 10,679 farms. The sector adds roughly $19.9 billion a year to the economy and sustains about 221,000 jobs, and dairy is said to be the livelihood of about 8% of Canadian farmers, though farm numbers keep thinning. Debate continues over supply management: critics say it holds back trade and concentrates influence, while the industry body defends it as the way to keep milk quality and farm incomes up. Dairy also accounts for a fifth of the greenhouse gases from Canadian livestock farming, most of it released on the farm while the cows are milking.