Feeding dairy cows vegetables

Is this a common practice and if not, why not?

You never see cows chowing down on a cauliflower patch or snacking on carrots or apples. It's obvious that it would improve both the taste and nutrition of the milk.

Seems like a no brainer so why isn't it done?

 

Vegetables and fruits can be sold for cash rather than feeding it to the cows. No farmer would buy apples or carrots for cows when there is grass.

 

... cows eat grass, weeds, grains and hay. they'd probably eat vegetables too i'd imagine ...

 

Cost is probably the biggest barrier. Another is that it's low yield because fruits and vegetables have a lot of water content (more storage and labour required). You'd also need to process it more because some are poisonous or they're choking hazards.

With that said, I think there are farms that operate by feeding their cows processed vegetable waste. I don't know if vegetables would always benefit the taste of dairy. Imagine drinking milk from a cow that only eats onions .

 

I grew up in the Country and as kids, my brothers and I would feed carrots, apples and corn on the cob to the cows and horses. For them it was a treat. Corn is a grain so they go for it with gusto. I tried feeding a potato to the cows one day, but they wouldn't take it. They might eat cukes.