Dairy cows

Dairy cows waiting to be milked (Farm Transparency Project, 2017)

 Selective breeding of cows turning them into milk machines

Dairy cows have been selectively bred in order to produce higher levels of milk than they would naturally, with modern dairy cows producing around 20-40 litres of milk per day. Calves only drink 5-10L of milk per day which the dairy industry used as a justification for separating calves from mothers, saying that dairy cows are at risk of developing mastitis due to calves not drinking enough. However, one of the primary reasons that cows produce so much milk is because of continual milking. Like all mammals, cows produce milk on a demand and supply basis. The faster a cow's udder is emptied, the faster a cow’s body tries to replenish the lost milk. This means that the practice of twice-daily milking of cows is directly linked to the large volume of milk they produce. If they were able to naturally feed their calves, they would produce much less. 

Cows being milked in a rotary milking parlour (Farm Transparency Project, 2024)

The udder of a dairy cow

Milking

Cows are generally milked twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening, however some herds are milked up to 3 times a day. Far from the days of squeezing milk by hand into a bucket, milking today is done by hooking cows up to an industrial machine in a milking parlour/shed.

Milking at Caldermeade dairy farm and cafe (Farm Transparency Project, 2024)

A cow being milked (Farm Transparecy Project, 2024)

It is estimated that up to one third of dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a painful inflammation of the mammary glands caused by bacteria entering the teat and moving into the udder. Contaminated equipment can quickly spread mastitis throughout a herd. Mastitis causes the udder to be swollen, hot, and sometimes gangrenous and blackened. Cows can become extremely unwell, miserable, and even die. Milk produced by cows with mastitis is abnormal and can contain increased levels of blood and pus.

22% of dairy cows also suffer from lameness, meaning that walking and moving is difficult and painful. Lameness is the third most common cause of premature slaughter for dairy cows. 

Slaughter:

Productive life cycle of the modern dairy cow. Source: Voiceless

Once a cow’s milk production begins to slow, she is unable to be reimpregnated or she becomes ill or injured, she is sent to slaughter. On high production dairy farms, most cows are between 3-4 years old when they are sent to slaughter. Although cows have a lifespan of up to 20-years old, most dairy cows will be slaughtered before they are six-years old. 

In Australia, many slaughterhouses specialise in the slaughter of spent dairy cows, generally selling their bodies as cheap meat for export or domestic sale. Greenham’s is the largest company specialising in the slaughter and processing of Australian dairy cows. They export meat to multiple countries and supply to Burger King in the US. 

Other Australian slaughterhouses also kill dairy cows alongside ‘beef’ cattle. 

A dairy cow at a Victorian slaughterhouse (Farm Transparency Project, 2024)

Dairy cow slaughter at Gretna Meatworks (2016)