Dairy farming is farming of milch cows in confined spaces for production of milk. It is highly mechanized with animals confined in tight cells. It is also called factory farming for milk production. The calves are separated from their mothers and grown for other purposes or disposed off. Grains like maize, soybean, and or ready made feeds are fed to cows. In some places they also give them green fodder. The cows are vaccinated against locally occurring bovine diseases and enzymes and other chemicals are added in feeds to increase milk yields. The problems with highly mechanized dairy farming are: no animal rights for cows with their babies separated from them immediately after birth; cows are confined in tight spaces without any room for their free movement and they are treated like milking machines; it is difficult to dispose off safely all the concentrated animal wastes from small places and thus they pollute the soil and the water sources in surrounding areas.

Pastoral farming is free range farming any type of animals including milch cows for their economic products. Here the farmers have large ranches with grass and other edible plants regenerated periodically with seasonal rainfall. They ride on horses or use jeeps to go around their ranches and watch the animals in free range. When the animals roam around and eat the grasses, they trample the vegetation and add their urine and dungs to fertilize the soil. For effective pastoral farming, farmers need to divide the pasture land or the ranch into many parcels and fence them so that they can practice rotational grazing. With well managed rotational grazing, the grass and other vegetation in different parcels can be regenerated and soil fertility is maintained well. With pastoral farming, animal right is protected and you get healthy milk, meat, wool, etc.