“Dairy cows make their misery expensive (but their calves can’t)” by Elizabeth

About this episode

Elizabeth discusses the conditions and suffering of dairy cows in milk production.

How much do cows suffer in the production of milk? I can’t answer that; understanding animal experience is hard. But I can at least provide some facts about the conditions dairy cows live in, which might be useful to you in making your own assessment. My biggest conclusion is that cows made better choices than chickens by making their misery financially costly to farmers. Life Cycle The life of a dairy cow starts as a calf. She is typically separated from her mother a few hours to a few days after birth and, to reduce disease risk, held in isolation. Cutting edge farms will sometimes house calves in pairs. This isolation is clearly stressful for a baby herd mammal and her mother, but I didn’t find any quantification of that stress that I trusted. Calves will be bottlefed until weaning at 6-8 weeks (4-6 months earlier than beef calves). After weaning and vaccinations they can be introduced into a herd. At large farms (where most cows live), they will move in and out of different herds through their lifecycle. This is more stressful than being embedded with your friends for life, but again, I found no [...] --- Outline: (00:44) Life Cycle (02:43) How much time do dairy cows spend…

People in this episode

Guest: Elizabeth

Topics covered

• animal welfare
• dairy farming
• cow suffering
• milk production
• animal experience

Keywords

• dairy cows
• animal suffering
• milk production
• calf separation
• farming practices

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