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I read on a save-the-animals pamphlet today that cows have to be pregnant to produce milk, and the way we get milk is by forcing impregnation on cows, then killing the baby cow. I didn't really believe it because I've never heard it before but them it got me thinking... So do cows have to be pregnant to produce milk?
I don't know what agribusiness in like in Indonesia but in the US life is pretty grim for most livestock. Large factory farms are based on efficiency with little if any concern for the well being of the animals. There are smaller farms that use more traditional methods that are better but they are a niche. My wife still eats meat but buys pastured beef, chicken, and eggs. Hopefully these animals are treated better but the downside is much higher prices. Most people would opt for cheap food with little concern for livestock.
Any mammal has to have a certain balance of hormones to induce lactation. This occurs naturally following child birth or it can be induced through hormone treatment. Im not sure what happens with dairy cows though. I always just assumed they used cows that had previously been pregnant. They will continue to lactate as long as they are being milked. I cant imagine dairy farmers getting the cow pregnant just to kill the calf as gestation for a cow is pretty long. It wouldnt be the most productive thing to kill the calf.
Cows do have to be impregnated to produce milk. Since cows are more valuable than bulls most male calves are killed. Since milk is too valuable to waste on calves they are weaned as soon as possible then fed an artificial formula made largely from livestock blood since it has little commercial value.
This is the way things are done at large scale commercial dairies. There are smaller dairy farms that treat livestock much more humanely though.
Yes, they have to give birth. Also naturally cows doesn't produce as much milk as people force them to. And as you know in any female producing milk drains nutrients from your body etc. So you often find where cows die a lot earlier than they should. Furthermore not all calves are killed, but in factories they are taken away from their mothers so that the mothers can give the milk.
i dont think so as long as they were once pregnant or have been given hormones that induces lactation cows/mammals /us can lactate for ever -as long as there is demand-suckling, the brain will produce milk hormones and thats where nurse maids used to come in when there were no bottles for human babies cows are the same suckle produces hormone which produces milk
I don't know how often but I do know that the amount of milk from cows does start to taper off if they are not impregnated. I don't know how often this needs to be done.
Now I got scared thinking of what we have done to those producing milk cows... I really do not have any idea.
