The cow problem

I love milk and cheese, and there's no way I'm giving them up, but the issue of how the industry deals with calves does give ethical doubts.

From a recent story at the ABC, which is an odd mix of sort of good, and sort of bad, news:

* Dairy Australia says 300,000 calves were slaughtered at five days of age during the 2021 financial year

• It says that number is down from 450,000 calves

 It is common practice on the majority Australian dairy farms for calves to be separated from cows within 24 hours of birth.

The calves are then taken to rearing facility or another shed and fed milk by farmers.

A percentage of female calves will stay on farm to be used as replacement heifers, and the remaining become surplus and are used for beef production.

Calves under 30 days old are known as bobby calves and must be at least five days old before they leave the farm.

Dairy Australia animal welfare national lead Sarah Bolton said the number of bobby calves going to slaughter in Australia was dropping.

"More and more dairy farms are looking to increase the number of calves raised for mature beef production, as opposed to slaughtering them as bobby calves," Dr Bolton said....

Dr Bolton, who is also a veterinarian, said there were several key reasons to separate calves and cows soon after birth.

"The first is the management of colostrum," Dr Bolton said.

"Dairy calves are born without a functioning immune system and rely on their first milk, which we call colostrum, to receive their immune system."

She said data showed that if left to suckle the cow on their own, at least 40 per cent of calves wouldn't get enough, which left them without an adequate immune system.

"We also have good data that shows the longer we leave a calf with a cow, the more stressful it is when we do separate them," Dr Bolton said.

Hmm.

That colostrum story sounds a bit suspiciously convenient for farmers who just want to get the calves separated and off to the slaughterhouse as soon as possible.

The story featured a small scale Victorian dairy farmer who says she doesn't separate the calves from the mothers,  although doing so seemingly halves the amount of milk that can be taken by the farmer.

Dr Bolton goes on to explain:

Dr Bolton said the industry was always looking at the issue of calf and cow separation and early life slaughter as public values evolved.

"The practice of culling calves at five days of age hasn't been undertaken because dairy farmers want to, or because it's particularly appealing for anyone," she said.

"It's been largely motivated by the fact those calves have historically not been seen as economically viable for beef production as a result of their genetics being selected for milk production.

"But the great news is as a result of research and innovation we are getting better at breeding dairy calves for beef production.

This article at The Guardian talks about "ethical dairy" methods:

The calves still need to be separated after weaning at around five months, a process Finlay and his new herdsman Charles Ellett have learned to manage by starting off with overnight periods of separation first.

“That first day we don’t open the gates in the morning though there is a huge outcry from the calves and cows,” says Finlay, who has got round it by introducing a surrogate mother – usually an older cow not producing much milk. They then use this cow to lead all the calves into a field on the other side of the farm to settle them.

The initial period of overnight separation helps create social bonds between the calves, says Finlay, making the final separation easier. The female calves will then stay on the farm to become milking cows, while the male calves are sold after five to seven months to produce veal.

And there's an argument that the early separation is actually less stressful:

Academic researchers say early separation within 24 hours has been found in some cases to reduce distress for both beef and dairy cows and calves, although the evidence for dairy calves is still inconclusive. “The faster you break the bond [between cow and calf] the fewer vocalisations you are going to get from calves,” says Marina Von Keyserlingk, a professor in animal welfare at the University of British Columbia.

Helen Browning, dairy farmer and CEO of the organic trade body the Soil Association, separates her calves and cows within 24 hours, but then keeps them with a surrogate mother cow who has been retired or rested from the dairy herd. Under organic standards, calves are separated from their mothers after birth, but are always kept in groups and must be given cow’s milk for their first 12 weeks.

“Calves hate being weaned and cows hate their calves being taken away, whether after one day or five months. But it is better to do it before a bond has developed. In nature cows would live together as a family with cows and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so we are already interfering a lot with that family process,” she says.

I don't know - killing animals within days of birth seems a waste of pregnancy and birth.  Same as I don't care for baby roosters going straight into the grinder at an egg farm.   Seems you should let something that has gone through birth at least a chance to see what life's about.   Is 6 months enough?  I guess they are being killed while they're cow teenagers.   Is that better or worse than being killed as a 7 day old calve?   This is complicated.  But if the calves are with their mother for 6 months, then that's better for the mother.  Isn't it?   

I wish someone would get on with making lab milk - not plant milk, but something pretty much identical to dairy milk.   They're working on it, but it seems to be taking too long...