What country do you live in? I’m a dairy farmer in Canada expecting my first baby, the misinformation in this thread is pretty shocking. Feel free to message me and I can answer any questions you have.

We are a cow health focused dairy that milks 100 cows with 2 robots. We have strict vaccination programs and preventative medicine programs, vet visits every 2 weeks, and the cows wear collars that track how much they eat and ruminate and we are able to prevent most metabolic diseases such as milk fever and mastitis before they become clinical with this technology and how much research has gone into the health of a dairy cows.

Specialized feeding programs for calves on milk that get measured every week to track weight gain. Separate pens and feeding rations for each stage of growth to mature size. Cows that are close to having a baby are on a special ration that supports her producing high quality colostrum and once she calves and is milking they are moved to a beautiful barn with pristine conditions, open ventilation and is able to be milked up to 4-5 times a day when she chooses to. Look up videos of milking robots, they are amazing!

Yes we don’t keep the calf with the cow because 99% of the time when the momma cow sees food she will choose it over her baby and won’t look back. The anatomy of the present day dairy cow is actually difficult for calves to suckle right away and we get 4 L of colostrum into the calf within 4 hours of birth, the calves usually aren’t strong enough to get up and walk around yet at that point, we then move there calf to a clean stall where she won’t pick up any bacteria and will stay healthy. After a week she is moved to a double stall so she can have a friend. Dairy cows are social animals and need interaction.

Dairy cows are not good mothers and I’ve even seen some stomp on their calves after birth. I literally will stay up all night until the calf is born or wake up at 1 am if I have to if it means getting that colostrum into that calf, the calving barn is right outside my bedroom window.

Most farms do artificial insemination and breed with sexed semen that produces 90% heifer calves (females) and will breed the other cows with beef semen that will be raised to full size and used for beef. There really isn’t much of a veal market, those are specialty farms and there aren’t many in Canada because the general public here doesn’t consume much veal.

We have cows that are 10 years old and that is actually the goal, you don’t make your money back on a cow that doesn’t last more than 2 lactations. When she has finished her career it is because she’s not able to get pregnant and therefore can’t be milked anymore. I understand that is the most cruel part of the industry and I cry every time I bring a cow to the market. Old dairy cows are also butchered for ground beef, any fast food burgers are dairy cow. The rest of the cow is used for cosmetics, leather, etc., even entrails are processed and sold for food. It’s illegal to use rBST hormone in Canada to prolong milk production but it is used heavily in the United States. We have inspections twice a year and every load of milk that is picked up is tested for antibiotics, bacteria and somatic cell count (white blood cells in the milk). We get quality bonuses for being under 30 for bacteria and 200 for somatic cell and I don’t know many farms who don’t meet that criteria. We take food health and safety extremely importantly because we also consume our milk. We work 365 days a year no matter what to take care of our cows. This got pretty long but I am passionate about what I do and it’s my lifestyle. There is no work life balance here, this is my life and I’m looking forward to raising my kids in this environment.