Factory farming

What Happens to Male Calves Born on Dairy Farms?

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Female calves are used in the dairy industry. But what happens to the males?

A mother cow shares a tender moment with her calf

Male calves are of no use to the dairy industry. So what happens to the male calves born on dairy farms?

How often do cows give birth to calves?

Some people are surprised to learn that cows do not just produce milk all the time. They only produce milk for their calves. Dairy cows are forced to birth one calf a year to ensure that they keep on producing milk.

When they are ‘spent’ (after 2-4 pregnancies), they are slaughtered for meat. Cows have a natural lifespan of up to 25 years. Dairy cows rarely live past the age of 6.

The high milk yields that the cows are expected to produce, as well as poor housing, can result in injury and disease. Common issues on dairy farms include lameness and mastitis, both extremely painful conditions.

There is also the psychological and emotional pain that cows suffer from being forcibly separated from their calves.

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What happens to female calves?

A female calf born to a dairy cow is used in the dairy industry. She will be taken from her mother to be raised elsewhere on formula milk or cow's milk (whilst her mother’s milk is bottled and sold for humans to stir into their hot drinks and pour onto their breakfast cereal).

When old enough, she will likely be impregnated through the process of artificial insemination, give birth, and also have her calves and milk taken away just as her mother before her.

What happens to male calves in the dairy industry?

Male calves, unable to produce milk, are considered ‘surplus’ to the dairy industry. They suffer one of three fates. They are:

  • Raised for beef.
  • Raised for veal.
  • Or killed shortly after birth.

Calves raised for beef

Male dairy calves raised for beef, like almost all dairy calves, are separated from their mothers shortly after birth and are usually transported to another farm for rearing.

Poor colostrum intake (an important source of nutrients naturally received from their mother) and the mixing of calves from different farms can make dairy-bred calves more susceptible to mortality and disease. Calves over 7 days old can be sold at livestock markets. They are still young to experience unfamiliar and stressful environments.

Seen as purely economic objects, dairy-bred calves are often fed concentrated diets to ensure good weight gain, but these diets are low in fibre and can lead to health problems like diarrhoea. The ‘optimum’ age for dairy calves to be slaughtered for beef is considered to be 13-14 months.

Calves raised for veal

Male calves raised for veal are often transported long distances, a process which can cause a great amount of discomfort and fear. Welfare standards for veal calves differ greatly across the world. Where there are no travel restrictions, calves can be subjected to up to four days of continuous travel in cramped and unsanitary conditions.

In the UK, veal production is rare, and welfare standards are generally higher than elsewhere in the world. Calves must be given bedding for their whole lives, and are provided with more space and fibrous food. Calves raised for veal in the UK are usually slaughtered at 6-8 months of age.

In the EU, veal crates - small boxes where calves cannot move and are often chained in place by the neck - were banned in 2006. This eliminated the cruelest of housing conditions, but calves raised for veal in the EU can still be kept on fully slatted floors with no bedding after just two weeks of age. In addition, long, stressful journeys by road are common.

Outside of the UK, calves are fed a milk diet (no solids or fibrous food) to keep their meat pale and tender. Their meat is known as ‘white veal’.

In many countries, there is no legislation banning the use of veal crates. Calves in these crates are extremely restricted in their movements, unable even to turn around.

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Calves killed at birth

And finally, where it is considered economically unviable to raise male calves, their fate is to be taken from their mothers immediately after birth and killed.

The UK industry is taking steps to stop this from happening, and at the beginning of 2022, the UK’s Red Tractor scheme introduced a standard to prohibit the ‘routine euthanasia’ of calves. However, this is not law and does not entirely prevent this from happening.

Where calves are killed at birth, the legislation requires they must be spared avoidable pain, distress, and suffering. Most calves subjected to this fate will be shot. In 2020 it was reported that, in the UK, roughly 60,000 male calves are shot at birth each year. And in Australia, this number reaches 400,000.

What's being done to address these issues?

Despite welfare laws supposedly protecting animals raised for meat or other food products, animal abuse is still common on factory farms.

There is welfare legislation in some countries, as mentioned above, to improve the standard of life for calves before slaughter. Legislation in the UK also ensures that calves raised for meat are stunned before slaughter.

Some farmers use sexed semen to ensure more female calves are born. This means fewer male calves are born, and therefore fewer are killed at birth or raised for veal or beef. However, this does not reduce the number of female calves who are born and then forced to go through a cycle of impregnation, separation and milking for the rest of their lives.

How you can help

As an individual, one of the most impactful things you can do is to cut out or reduce the beef and dairy products, in your diet

You can also join us, as we continue to fight for animals raised on factory farms.

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