Elanco, a branch of Eli Lilly and Company, has acquired from Monsanto the rights to sell Posilac, a product containing recombinant bovine somatotropin.  Among other uses, somatotropin is useful for promoting growth in cattle.   The recombinant DNA technology involved in the production of this form of bovine somatotropin makes Posilac an artificial hormone.   With the production of this growth hormone in an artificial manner, cattle growth can be artificially accelerated.

One of the main benefits accorded to Posilac is in the quantity of milk produced by cattle.  Researchers have shown that when Posilac is administered to cattle, the cows are able to produce milk up to a more advanced age.   Posilac manages this by increasing the life of the cells present in the mammary glands of the cow.  Thus, the cow is able to keep producing milk to a longer age.

By suitably administering Posilac, cows can also be made to produce more milk during their lean times, i.e. when their natural tendency to produce milk decreases.  The cow can be made to produce milk even when her body is not naturally inclined to do so.  Today, the most important use of Posilac has been to increase the milk production of cattle, thus addressing the world’s dairy production problem.

However, it must be noted that Posilac is not able to improve the quantity of the amount of milk that a cow produces on a daily basis.  What it does is to make the cow produce milk for more years and also produce it during its otherwise non-lactating periods.

There are some specific ways in which Posilac is recommended to be used.  The initial application is done fifty days after the cow lactates.  When Posilac is applied at this stage, it is able to retain the mammary cells that are present in the cow’s body.  After the peak period, the lactation amount usually decreases, but because of the retention of the mammary cells, it doesn’t decrease as rapidly as it would without the application of Posilac.

Elanco’s Posilac is proving to be a boon for dairy farmers, who are able to get a high production from their cattle.  On average, Posilac can generate an increase in milk production per cow to the tune of six to eight pounds per day.  This figure takes into account an average of the increase in total production of the cow, considering that Posilac does not actually bring about a daily increase.