Cows are descendants of wild oxen known as aurochs and are sturdy, yet gentle animals. Their lifespan is around 20-25 years or more. In their natural environment they are social and contemplative, and form close relationships which can last their entire lives. They choose to spend much of their time with 2-4 preferred individuals. Sleeping conditions are determined by the individual’s rank in the social hierarchy. When let out into a field after being confined indoors, they show excitement by leaping and running. They often groom and lick each other, and like to be scratched under their chin, and behind their ears.
Cows are curious and will investigate everything. They learn from each other’s mistakes. If an individual is shocked by an electric fence, others in the herd will avoid it. They have an excellent sense of smell and can detect odours up to 6 miles away. They are devotional mothers and form strong bonds with their calves. If a cow is caught on the opposite side of a fence from her calf, she will become alarmed, agitated and call frantically. If they remain separate she will stay there through blizzards, hunger and thirst waiting to be reunited.
The majority of cows farmed across the world are reared in intensive farming systems. The size of the total cattle herd in the UK – including both dairy and beef animals is around 10 million. Of these 1.8 million are adult dairy cows. In the past, the same herd of cattle would be used for both milk and beef production, but today farmers keep either dairy or beef cattle. The calves of dairy and beef cows are likely to have very different lives.
DAIRY COWS
Around 95% of dairy cows in UK are typically the black and white Holstein/Friesian breed, selectively bred to produce very high volumes of milk. Production per cow has doubled in the last 40 years. By the time a high-yielding dairy cow reaches 4 or 5 years old on a modern dairy farm, her milk production drops and/or she is chronically lame and infertile, so she is sent for slaughter. Her meat often ends up in low-grade burgers or pet food.
Cows grazing in fields could disappear as struggling dairy farmers come under pressure to change to more intensive methods, housing their cows indoors for the majority, if not all of their lives. Farming systems and practices vary widely across the world. Zero grazing is widespread in USA and there have been attempts to introduce mega-dairies of thousands of cows in one zero-grazing unit in UK.
Not all dairy cows in Britain are treated the same. Naturally, they love roaming and foraging, socialising, mothering and resting in fields, but today they are often kept in barren and confined farming systems, unable to express their natural behaviours. In virtually all herds, cows are moved from one group to another, causing both emotional upset and aggression as a new hierarchy is formed.
Many people think a cow produces milk automatically, but in order to produce commercial quantities of milk, they are forced to endure a constant cycle of pregnancy and birth. Lactation does not occur, unless this cycle is perpetuated. To enable a constant supply of milk, they typically give birth to a calf every year. The majority of dairy cows in the UK are impregnated 2-3 months after each birth. She is required to nurture a growing calf inside, while simultaneously producing milk.
Calves are usually taken away from their mothers within 24 hours of birth, after suckling their mother’s first antibody-rich milk, colostrum, in order for her milk to be sold. Calves recognise their own mother’s calls within this period. Under normal circumstances, a calf will suckle from 6 months-1year, and maintain a strong bond with her for many years. Separation causes acute anxiety and suffering for both animals, and has long term effects on the calf’s physical and social development.
After carrying her baby for 9 months, her strong instincts to protect and nurse it are denied. She has been known to wail and mourn the loss of her calf for weeks on end. Observations show searching behaviour, alteration in sleeping and feeding patterns, failure to play and a raised heart rate. Some mothers have been known to break out of fields, and then walk miles to be reunited with them at auction.
Treatment of calves: At one day old the female calf is put into a pen on her own. Traumatised, she suckles on anything she can find. She is raised initially on formula. Around 2 years old she is mature enough to become pregnant. The birth of her first calf will trigger her first milk cycle. Female calves replace their worn out mothers.
Male calves produced by dairy cows, can’t produce milk and are deemed unsuitable (too scrawny) for beef production, so they are shot in the head after birth. Due to cooperation between CIWF, the RSPCA and the UK Dairy Industry, more are being reared for beef now, and the number of calves shot every year in UK has greatly reduced to around 55,000. There has also been an increase in the production of higher welfare veal.
Some calves are used for breeding purposes, and reared in groups of up to 80, often in sheds with wooden slatted floors (should have bedding but often not). They never see outdoors. Many others are exported to low welfare farms in different countries and travel long distances by ship or road. They will feel stressed, hungry, tired, fearful and are very vulnerable.
Milk-producing machines: the mother produces less than 1,000 litres throughout the duration of her lactation, storing approximately 2 litres in her udders at any one time. In modern dairy farming, cows can be expected to produce between 6,000 to over 12,000 litres during their 10 month lactation. This means they may be carrying as much as 20 litres each at any one time, placing their bodies under enormous physical and mental strain. Due to these demands, they can’t take in sufficient calories by grazing, so they are fed a grain based diet as well, to increase their milk production, which can lead to health problems.
Exploitation of the reproductive system: the most common technique used to impregnate dairy cows is forcibly by artificial insemination. This means an extremely invasive procedure which includes the ‘operator’ manipulating the cervix via a hand thrust into the rectum. But increasingly, powerful hormones are being used, injections, to force high quality cows to produce large numbers of embryos, which are surgically removed and inserted into lower grade females who then bring the calves to term. Surrogate cows. Those who repeatedly fail to become pregnant will be slaughtered.
Housing: dairy cows in the UK are usually kept outside in pasture from mid-Spring to mid-Autumn, but for 6 months of the year, they are kept indoors. Housing typically consists of concrete cubicles around a central communal area. The cubicles are separated by metal bars which the cows can freely enter, lie down in, and leave. They must have suitable bedding on the floor, which can include straw, wood shavings or ash. Urine and excrement is collected in a passageway, or passes through slats in the floor of the communal area.
This housing is usually barren, with little to stimulate them and has been associated with behavioural problems such as aggression and bullying. Rest is important to cows, particularly during lactation. Housing cows in close proximity for long periods also has implications for their health, including an increased risk of mastitis, lameness and contagious disease. Around 10% of dairy cows in the UK are now being housed all year round, in what is known as is ‘zero-grazing’ units. This can lead to vitamin D deficiency.
Tie stalls: some farming systems confine dairy cows permanently. This is common practice all over Europe, and they are used extensively, worldwide, despite contradicting animal welfare. USA had 63% of low welfare tie stalls in 2007. Although not widely used in UK, there were 1,800 cows in 2016, housed like this, either permanently or in Winter. If the dairy cow is placed in a continuous tie stall, she is tethered by her neck all year, day and night.
She cannot walk or graze, move properly or even turn around. Her food is brought to her, and she is milked where she stands. Electric wires may be used to force her to urinate or defecate outside the stall. She is likely to suffer from sores and lesions on her legs and never experiences being in a field. In UK the welfare codes say cows in tie stalls should have daily exercise, but this is often not carried out. These are not permitted in organic systems.
Intensive dairies: are often cubicle systems. The cow lives amongst hundreds of others, and may have little respite from other animals. Cubicle designs vary widely. She may not have access to bedding material, or space to lie down and rest. She may never go outdoors, graze or lie in a field, or she may have outdoor access, but it could be barren concrete or hard earth.
Pasture based systems: allow dairy cows to graze in fields for part or all of the year and provide indoor housing during winter. This will allow her to perform many of her natural behaviours. She has plenty of space to roam, lie down comfortably next to her preferred partners, graze and avoid her manure. She may be more robust and is less likely to suffer from pain and disease, living a longer more natural life.
Continuous and seasonal grazing: a dairy cow farmed in a continuous grazed system lives her whole life outside. She may benefit from grazing in the summer months. However if the weather is cold and no shelter is provided, the dairy cow endures wet and cold, with no respite during winter. On a seasonal grazing farm she may have access to grazing in summer, depending upon the weather. She is housed indoor the rest of the year in cubicles or straw yards, where she can comfortably lie down; or she may be in a tie stall.
Organic system: weather permitting, a dairy cow is put out to pasture during Spring, Summer and Autumn. She is fed a more natural diet with plenty of roughage and can express her natural behaviours such as grazing, foraging, and socialising and can rest comfortably. Housing will consist of well-ventilated straw bedded sheds. She is not given preventative antibiotics, and generally lives a longer healthier life. Better welfare and breeding is encouraged to reduce problems like lameness, mastitis and poor fertility. Soil Association Organic standards ban the sale of calves under 12 weeks old (unless with their mother).
Other pasture based systems: many traditional small scale dairy farms still keep cows on pasture during the grazing season. Certified humane dairy standards prohibit certification of dairy systems that do not allow outdoor access.
Lameness: a high percentage, suffer from this due to the quality of bedding available, the move towards cubicle housing, and the practice of being fed wet fermented grass, rather than dry hay. Silage produces wet faeces and acidic slurry, which can soften their feet and cause infections. Also implicated is the reliance on concentrated feed supplements, which are difficult for these slow digesting ruminants to cope with. This results in inflammatory substances being released into the blood stream, leading to laminitis (inflammation of deep hoof tissues) an acutely painful foot disorder. Another reason for lameness is the vast size and weight of the cow’s udder. It is so distended most can’t stand, walk or lie down properly.
Mastitis: dairy cows producing large volumes of milk are prone to this, an acutely painful udder infection caused by bacteria. Contamination of milking equipment and bedding might cause it. For every 100 cows in UK there could be as many as 50- 70 cases every year on average. Infertility: this is a major productivity problem for farmers with high-yielding dairy cows. It can be caused by nutritional deficiencies, stress and poor body condition.
Hunger and exhaustion: dairy cows are often exhausted, particularly if she is producing lots of milk and her bedding is poor and uncomfortable. Physiological cage: high milk yield forces her to need large quantities of high energy feeds, making it harder for her to get enough nutrition from grass, so she becomes confined to indoor housing. Milk fever: a small percentage suffer from this, caused by the sudden depletion of calcium reserves from the heavy burden of birth and lactation, which can cause muscle tremors and weakness, bloating, constipation and even coma and death if not quickly treated. Grass staggers: some cows get this, caused by a lack of magnesium in their diet.
BEEF CATTLE
Cows selectively bred for beef are generally slaughtered after I or 2 years in Europe, but they can live up to 5 years old, if extensively reared. The female produces enough milk to feed one calf. Many beef cattle in the UK, Ireland and Northern France are often reared outdoors on grass, but many are also kept indoors and fattened on a high grain diet across most of Europe. There is a broad spectrum within this industry with regard to welfare. In indoor systems, beef cattle are commonly housed on slatted floors, without bedding in crowded conditions, which increases aggression.
Intensive systems: produce15-20% British beef. Calves are removed at birth and raised in pens on milk formula and food pellets. Before slaughter they are taken to a fattening shed and fed high-bulk cereals, ready for slaughter in 10-12 months. Less intensive systems: calves remain with their mother until they are weaned. They have a grass based diet, until they are heavy enough to be slaughtered, around 2 years.
Mutilations: nearly all beef producers, dehorn or disbud, brand and castrate their animals. Male calves reared for beef are often castrated despite being slaughtered before they reach sexual maturity.
Disease: cattle are susceptible to a number of diseases that can prove fatal in both humans and bovines. The spread of some of these can be attributed to farming practices, including food regimes, moving cattle between herds and poor hygiene and bio-security. Some serious outbreaks in recent decades have included, BSE (mad cow disease) which causes serious neurological damage in cows and humans. Scientists believe this was created after cows who are vegetarian, were fed sheep offal. When the animals died they were put into feed for other animals to eat which accelerated the disease. Millions of cows were killed.
The human strain is called Variant Creatzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which humans contracted eating beef (no cure). Foot and mouth disease can cause miscarriage, mastitis and lameness. Bovine tuberculosis (TB) causes serious respiratory problems. E. coli causes serious food poisoning in humans and Schmallenberg virus causes birth defects and miscarriages in various animals.
Live Transport: current EU rules allow cattle to travel up to 14 hours without a rest or water. They must have a rest period of at least an hour after that, and then they may be transported for another 14 hours. After the second 14 hour journey, if the destination has not been reached the cattle must be unloaded, given food and water and rested for 24 hours. This pattern can be repeated infinitely. Time spent on aircraft or specialist livestock vessels, does not count towards the 14 hours maximum journey time. A number of organisations and politicians are campaigning for a maximum overall journey length of 8 hours. Whilst this would be a considerable improvement on current law, it is still a long time to be spent in a confined space with no room to turn around, lie down and without access to water.
Genetic Engineering
The Belgian Blue cow has had a change in a gene, which caused an effect called ‘double muscling.’ The large muscles produce more steaks per cow. This can mean a larger calf, but the extra muscle gets in the way of her birth canal, making it smaller which causes the cow difficulty when giving birth. Many calves have to be born by caesarean operations, which will be repeated annually. Scientists say these techniques could be used to pass the ‘double muscling gene’ on to sheep, pigs and chickens.
Gender selected breeding
Using this technology the dairy farms can breed only female calves, because the female sperm is separated from male sperm.
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