Aussie Bridge Has a Cow, Man

And, not surprisingly, their milk is quite pricey

(NEWSER) - After you've helped convince women to spend $575 on a single pair of shoes, why not move on to very expensive milk? That's what George Malkemus and Tony Yurgaitis, Manolo Blahnik's top two executives, are doing. Milk from their Connecticut farm, Arethusa, sells for $4.49 per half-gallon—more than twice the national average—at Whole Foods and other stores. The Wall Street Journal offers an amusing glimpse into the lives of the pair's 350 cows, which eat only the finest hay, rest on Canadian wood shavings, and get vacuumed daily in a spa-like setting. More»

Genetic engineers in China face criticism from health, animal advocates

(NEWSER) - Scientists in China have genetically altered some 300 cows to produce "human" milk, the Telegraph reports. Using cloning techniques, scientists inserted human genes into cow embryos and implanted the embryos in mother cows. Scientists say the resulting dairy cows produced milk with "much higher nutritional content" than regular cow’s milk, including extra fat as well as proteins that support the immune system—meaning it could be an alternative to formula for babies. More»

(NEWSER) - A British milk ad showing an angry black-spotted bull "purifying" himself white is racist, consumers are bellowing—charges a UK advertising council has labeled bull. "Viewers were likely to understand that the black-and-white bulls were intended as a metaphor for milk and were unlikely to interpret the purification process as being racist," the council declared. Milk company officials denied the ads were racist. More»

(NEWSER) - A 5-year, $53 million project has resulted in the sequencing of the cow genome, the Houston Chronicle reports. The results will likely take the guesswork out of breeding, but also mark the end of big-money sequencing projects. “It was pretty dumb to do the cow for $50 million when the cost will go down to $5,000 in a year or two,” a researcher said. More»

Farmers can't afford to keep them

(AP) - Hundreds of thousands of America's dairy cows are being turned into hamburgers because milk prices have dropped so low that farmers can no longer afford to feed the animals. Dairy farmers say they face a perfect storm of destructive economic forces: At home, feed prices are rising and consumers are eating out less often. Meanwhile, abroad, the global recession has cut into demand for butter and cheese exported from the US. More»