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Growing alfalfa is a common choice in the west, but it's an incredible water-user for such a low-value crop (on a square acre basis, alfalfa nets the least money back of all the major crops). Of all crops grown in the west, only cotton and rice take more water than alfalfa. But the reason alfalfa is so common is that cattle are frequently run on arid, un-irrigated land (out here it's usually BLM or NFS land) and the alfalfa grown elsewhere and brought in - a system developed over time, aided by cheap oil and cheap rangeland.
It looks like it'd make a lot more sense to keep the cattle where the grass can be grown (and there are a lot of nutritious native western grasses that can grow on 10-13" of water a year).
The thing that is hard to find statistical data on is the carbon footprint from transporting the beans which are largely grown in South America to North America and Europe. That combined with the deforestation and use of land to grow the beans means less and less trees and wildlife to try and stem this global warming. All in all it does not look like either side is a real winner...
Just switch to goat or sheep milk. Goats milk in most cases can be easily digested by lactose intolerant peoples because of the low levels of alpha s1-casein and that fact that it is 'naturally homogenized' due to the smaller fat globules.
Since I was involved in the dairy industry for many years, I absolutely cannot drink cows milk because it always tastes off to me. You can easily taste what the cow was given, and it's very easy to differentiate between grass fed and corn fed milk once you are taught what to taste for.
Goats milk is much more palatable (if you can get over the ridiculous stigma) and you haven't had good ice cream until you've had unpasteurized goat milk ice cream. No sugar needed in processing, that's how good it is
Since I was involved in the dairy industry for many years, I absolutely cannot drink cows milk because it always tastes off to me. You can easily taste what the cow was given, and it's very easy to differentiate between grass fed and corn fed milk once you are taught what to taste for.
I grew up on a small dairy farm. We'd filter some of the milk, put it in glass gallon jars and bring it in the house for our own drinking.
Our cows always had ground ear-corn to eat. But it was unbelievable how much differently the milk tasted when the cows were switched from one roughage to another. It's not that the milk would taste just like corn silage, or alfalfa hay, but it certainly had different "nuances" to the taste.
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