To produce milk, the mother cow must give birth to a calf. Female calves can be entered into milking production or sold as veal. Because male calves are useless to the dairy industry, they are either shot or sent to veal crates. Regardless of sex, calves are taken from their mothers almost immediately after birth.
This often causes significant mental distress for the mothers and impairs the social and physical development of the calf. Male calves who will be raised for meat undergo castration. There are several different ways this procedure can be conducted. Other methods include cutting away portions of the scrotum and destroying testicles by removal or crushing.
Also known as dehorning, disbudding is a process where the horns of young cows are removed. Horns can be burned away using caustic acid, or cut away using implements that resemble nutcrackers. The resulting open wounds invite infection and other painful complications.
Because of the painful nature of the procedure, and the fact that it is not necessary—it is merely a matter of convenience for people—many countries have banned the practice. Unfortunately, many countries, including the US and Canada, continue to allow tail-docking. The dairy industry perpetuates the suffering, exploitation, and death of dairy cows. Many are prevented from ever setting foot onto grassy fields and socializing with other animals as they would in the wild.
Although it is difficult to give up milk and cheese, doing so is the number one way to prevent the ongoing abuse dairy cows suffer on factory farms. Plant-based cheeses are becoming more popular, and cellular agricultural companies are currently exploring ways to produce real milk without using any cows. Cutting back or cutting out dairy is a great way to help mother cows and their calves.
On factory farms, animals are subjected to routine mutilations and extreme confinement. They're also genetically manipulated for the supposed benefit of human consumers.
Do They Suffer? The average Holstein cow produces roughly 23, pounds of milk during each lactation period. Holsteins can give birth at only 23 months of age. India has more dairy cows than any other country, with roughly 60 million cows. In , the European Union produced more cow milk than any other country in the world, at nearly million metric tons.
Dairy farmers spend many hours in their barns each day, and as a result, know their herd well. Depending on the farm, female cows are either bred by a bull, or through a process known as AI. Some farms have a bull on farm, and use a combination of bull breeding and AI. Farmers have a close relationship with their veterinarian, who makes routine visits to their barn.
These checks are important to monitor the herd, but also for the health records of individual cows. A dairy cow will have her first calf when she is around two years old. Since farmers keep detailed records, they watch their cows carefully around due dates.
Veterinarians are on call should a complication in delivery arise. Calves are usually delivered in a part of the barn separate from the rest of the herd, where the mother cow has privacy and her own space. The farmer prepares the delivery area by providing fresh, clean, and comfortable bedding. Witnessing or assisting in a birth is a humbling experience for many farmers. Even those who have been farming for a long time report that it is a miracle each time a calf is born.
After a cow gives birth, the farmer immediately attends to her needs, and the needs of the calf. The farmer inspects the calf to make sure that he or she is in good health and with time, able to stand. At this time, the mother typically licks the baby clean, or is assisted by the farmer, who may towel dry the calf.
The milk a cow produces after giving birth is called colostrum. Colostrum is thick, creamy and golden-hued. Calves should drink colostrum within the first few hours of their life. Most farmers, after performing a health check, milk the cow shortly after birth. This practice ensures that there is enough colostrum to feed her calf right away. The farmer will typically bottle feed to make sure the calf receives all the colostrum he or she needs. The health of both the mother cow and calf are monitored closely during this time.
The farmer makes sure the mother cow is comfortable, with access to nutritious food and water as she recovers from birth. Dairy cows today produce times the amount of milk they did years ago, thanks to things like genetic modification and […].
Great, am interested in Holstein cow,am in the northern part of Benin Republic. A small country with Nigeria. Can Holsteincows be reared here. What are the facts? Am surprised to find an article like this in Modern Farmer? Thank you for addressing the problems of such a problematic industry and the efforts to make it better for people, planet, and animals. No doubt this was NOT written by a farmer of any type. I live in rural Kentucky and can count on two hands the number of small dairy farmers that I personally know.
My milk literally … Read more ». Milk is an essential source of nourishment throughout the world; humans adapted to drinking milk from goats as a food substitute during the ice age. It has since become a staple in the human diet. If you so choose to stop drinking milk you have every right too.
Believe it or not there are families that have spent generations practicing and perfecting the production of milk and meat. Although some believe this to be unnecessary today, have some respect for when our species would not have … Read more ». The Million Gardens Movement doesn't just help you grow a garden, we're also bringing gardens to kids across the country — and you can help. Learn more at milliongardensmovement.
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Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and are used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. By Mark Kurlansky on March 17, Mark Kurlansky. Dan Osofsky prepares a cow's udder for the milking device in his hand.
He is cleaning her teats with a solution containing iodine, a disinfectant. Ronny and his son, Dan, stand outside the milking parlor with a particularly docile cow. Ronny, the farm's namesake, still runs operations. Dan can usually be found closer to the ground, kneeling and milking the cows. Still, Ronny is no slouch: He spends his days roaming the grounds, supervising all the moving parts of the farm that he founded.
One of the farm's workers loading milk bottles onto a truck. From dawn till dusk, the milk production and the shipping and receiving operations are working in parallel. A driver checking out one of his drinkable yogurt orders. In the winter, when it's cold, the drivers fulfill their orders themselves in the warehouse.
Bottling drinkable yogurt. No home delivery is available. For all products but ice cream, all the production and packaging is done at the farm - the milk parlor and the packaging fulfillment areas are only separated by a small road.
Workers prepare the milk and yogurt culture solution for placement in a large incubator. A farmhand spends a moment with the calves after they have been cleaned and fed.
The calves are quarantined in their own area and moved from various pens as they get older. The animals' birthdays and mothers' names are recorded on yellow ID tags, which are put on calves soon after birth and stay on their entire lives. Sign up for your Modern Farmer Weekly Newsletter. Notify of. Most Voted Newest Oldest. Inline Feedbacks. Cindy Freeman. View Replies 5. Friends with Animals. View Replies 2. Bola Adeyanju.
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