Maybe dairy breeding and management must change again Comment The Lyons herd on the University College Dublin farm in mid-April: farms like this, producing 46% more milk solids per cow than the national average, may yet be the template for a dairy industry with much fewer cows and a much lower carbon footprint, but still producing as much or more milk than our current dairy cow herd of about 1.5 million. Mon, 17 May, 2021 - 14:30 Stephen Cadogan The EU-27 reduced its dairy cow numbers by about 25% since 2001. This is likely to have reduced methane emissions from dairy cows by 20%, thus contributing to global cooling.