Chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to some survey respondents

Jun 19, 2017

The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy surveyed 1,000 people in May

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

About 70 of the 1,000 people surveyed for Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy think chocolate milk comes from brown cows.

And almost half of the respondents were unsure where chocolate milk came from at all.

The survey didn’t ask where strawberry milk came from.

“Responses came from all 50 states, and the regional response breakdown was fairly even, with a slight uptick (approx. 10 percent higher) in the South,” Lisa McComb, spokeswoman for Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, said in an email to the Huffington Post.

The results may seem laughable but they’re also a reminder of the need for consumer education.

“Consumers nowadays are five, maybe six, generations removed from agriculture,” Mitch Schulte, associate director with the Iowa State Dairy Association, told Farms.com. “I see this (survey result) as an opportunity to realize there’s more work for us to do. All of agriculture struggles to educate consumers and help build awareness of where their products are coming from.”

Here are other milk-related myths:

Drinking chocolate milk causes weight gain, and
The added sugars in chocolate milk will make children hyper.

Edelman Intelligence conducted the survey on the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy’s behalf in May to kick off Innovation Center’s ‘Undeniably Dairy’ campaign.

Farms.com has reached out to Edelman Intelligence for complete survey results.

Video: Environmental Effects on Sow Fertility - Dr. Isabela Bez

In this special episode celebrating International Women's Day of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, we bring Dr. Isabela Bez, a veterinarian and PhD student in Brazil, who explains how temperature and light regimes influence sow reproductive performance. She discusses seasonal infertility, climate adaptation, and why environmental monitoring inside barns is critical for herd efficiency. The episode highlights practical management strategies to reduce reproductive losses and improve outcomes. Listen now on all major platforms. "Environmental factors are actually very important on sow reproduction, and sometimes these are the factors that producers tend to not pay attention." Meet the guest: Dr. Isabela Bez / isabela-cristina-cola%c3%a7o-bez-1753381b0 is a veterinarian and PhD student in Animal Science at Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR), Brazil. Her work focuses on swine reproduction, nutrition, and animal welfare, with strong expertise in environmental effects on sow performance. She collaborates with international farms and research groups to improve reproductive efficiency through applied science.