Cows only produce milk when they’ve recently had a baby, so farmers get their cows pregnant every year. The females become the new milking cows, and the males go into the grinder. The males aren’t used for meat because different breeds are used for milk than for meat.
Comment on Time to grow up.
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 8 months agoThat’s sad. I’d like to stop learning now.
HardlightCereal@lemmy.world 8 months ago
JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
It’s a little better than that, males are kept pent in too small enclosures and fed only milk until they’re too fat to move, THEN they’re slaughtered, because veal is pretty fuckin tasty
federatingIsTooHard@lemmy.world 8 months ago
hardly an cattle become veal at all. like far less that 5%.
bleistift2@feddit.de 8 months ago
This is class A bullshit.
Milk is harvested for human consumption. What would be the point of dairy farms if you’re feeding the milk to the offspring?
Leviathan@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Milk-fed veal is most definitely a thing. My uncle had a whole farm based on it when I was a kid.
HardlightCereal@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ah, the wonders oft childhood obesity
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
This is not true. Dairy Bobby Calves can be used in veal.
Squeamish people being unwilling to eat veal is the main reason that they are not all utilized for that purpose.
federatingIsTooHard@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Dairy Bobby Calves are used for veal.
almost none of them do end up as veal though.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Agreed. People are wrongly disgusted by veal and think they’re doing something good by avoiding it. More people should eat more veal.
federatingIsTooHard@lemmy.world 8 months ago
the vast majority of the males are brought to full weight before slaughter
SCB@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yes farmers are definitely known for maximizing cruelty for giggles over efficiency and profit, and that’s why they murder bulls for fun.
Perhaps have even one conversation with an actual dairy farmer in your life.
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 8 months ago
Nah. It’s to avoid accidents with holes in cows.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
And intentional attacks with horns. Cows have no problem killing each other, and it’s a baaad death.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
It’s not as bad as that. Dehorning is one of the “worst” things in dairy farming, and it is done to ***save *** pain and lives.
Thorry84@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Sometimes they regrow and get burnt off multiple times.
If they’d allow the horns to grow, it would be impossible to keep so many cows in the same area. The one with the biggest horns would bully all the others and a lot of cows will get hurt. If there are multiple with big horns, they fight for dominance. They keep getting into fights till one of them is killed.
Sometimes the horns keep growing and the animal needs to go to the slaughter because of it. Each time the horns are burnt off it’s a chance to get infected, so you can’t keep doing it. If you let it grow in a case like this, the growth is uncontrolled and would most likely curl up and grow into the cows head, causing all sorts of problems. So a cow like that isn’t useful for growing more cows and producing milk, it’s only purpose would be to get slaughtered and provide meat.
The more you learn about animal farming, the more you want to become a vegan.
empireOfLove@lemmy.one 8 months ago
the fuck is all this bullshit? do you even know what you’re talking about?
Most breeds maintained in any number in the US these days, typically angus, herefords, and holsteins, have had any visible horns selectively bred out of them. They’re just too hard to keep otherwise. Yes, those with horns do get them docked if necessary- but those breeds are just not that common anymore.
Thorry84@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Have you considered the world doesn’t end at the US border?
SCB@lemmy.world 8 months ago
US borders should end where the Galaxy ends.
One Imperium. His Imperium.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Most people engaging in these arguments are happy to accuse the United States of the sins of all cow-rearing countries. The anti-cow folks can’t have their cake and eat it too. A majority of people involved in both sides of these discussions are in countries that use progressive cattle-rearing processes that are more humane, more ecologically sound, and more nutritionally sustainable than countries like India and China.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
That’s actually patently false. Farmers’ families are very unlikely to become vegan.
TheMauveAvenger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
None of this bothers me.
SnowdenHeroOfOurTime@unilem.org 8 months ago
That’s just because your soul is terrifying
Smirk@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
It’s not meant for you. I can assume it’s meant for people whom it does bother, and also don’t know.
abraxas@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
One would hope that people bothered by these things would take their time to visit a farm and see the full experience and relationship of cows and farmers, instead of making major life decisions off snippets.
For example, it seems minimally fair to show the outcome of cowfights (the reason we dehorn them), or to depict that the options (for any animal) are domestication, wild, or anti-natalism. People bothered by these things are likely to be equally bothered by a cow bleeding out slowly in the jaws of a predator animal, OR the idea of basically wiping out the species.
A lot of things that gross vegans out are for the good of the cow, but make wonderfully horrific soundbytes.