Tulare County – With dairymen and dairy experts filling the Farm Credit Dairy Center at Tulare's International Agri-Center last week for the World Ag Expo, one hot topic of conversation was the declining use in dairyland of rbST — recombinant bovine somatotropin – a synthetic growth hormone once widely used to increase milk production in dairy cows.
The hormone, which was approved by the FDA in 1993, is administered by injection and among dairymen, is also called rbGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), bGH or bST. For nearly a decade, rbST was utilized at many dairies as a “management tool” to boost production without increasing the size of the herd.
But in recent years, driven largely by consumer sentiment and demand, a growing number of milk processors and milk retailers have put pressure on dairymen to limit or discontinue use of rbST, which was originally made and marketed by Monsanto under the brand name Posilac.
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