As promised, here is the photo of this year's dairy calves at the “high welfare” dairy farm near me.  As I wrote last year, they won't be here for long but their existence should be documented.  They deserve to be remembered – after all, they're dying so Raystede can serve ice cream.

According to Viva's article The Dark Side of Dairy, although cows would naturally suckle their calves for nine months to a year, dairy calves are taken away from their mothers almost immediately – between hours or up to two days of birth – to ensure that as much milk as possible is available for sale. The strong bond that is formed between mother and calf in the first few hours after birth makes this enforced separation a very traumatic experience. Both mother and calf bellow loudly after separation and respond to each other’s calls by moving toward the sound, with calves able to distinguish their own mother’s calls within 24 hours of birth.

The cow attempts to get to her calf and it’s not uncommon that cows break separation fences to be reunited with their calves. The intensity of the separation stress is reflected in changed sleeping and feeding behaviour, loss of appetite, increased heart rate and levels of stress hormones. However, there are many more issues surrounding calves and calving – currently around eight per cent of all calves are born dead or die within 24 hours whilst only 86 out of every 100 dairy heifers born alive make it to first calving. Of those who do, 15 per cent are culled before their second lactation (mainly because of infertility).  But the fate of male and female calves is radically different.

Female Calves:

Half of the female calves born each year will be pure dairy breed calves who will enter the dairy herd, replacing the 25 per cent of cows who are culled every year because they are worn out. They are allowed to suckle from their mothers for the first day of life so that they receive the antibody rich milk, known as colostrum, which cows produce immediately after calving and which is essential for the calves’ immune system. Welfare regulations require that each calf must receive colostrum within the first six hours of life. However, they are soon separated from their mothers and fed commercial milk replacer, either from an artificial teat or from a bucket.

Although the main motivation for removing the calves is financial – farmers want to sell as much of the milk as possible – decades of genetic manipulation have resulted in such hugely distorted udders that it is difficult for calves to find and reach the teat. Where this is a problem farmers will remove the calves within a few hours of birth and feed them their mother’s colostrum from a bucket or automatic feeder.

Calves are allowed to be sold when they’re just one week old and this is an immensely stressful event for them causing them many health problems and makes even their ability to digest food decline. In the first few weeks of life calves, like all infants, are very susceptible to disease, with up to six per cent of calves born each year dying before one month old. Diarrhoea (known as scours in the farming sector) is the main factor contributing to these deaths and is often caused by low-quality or incorrectly prepared milk replacer. For this reason, artificially-reared calves are weaned completely on to solid food by five weeks of age, much sooner than in the wild.

Under the welfare regulations, calves may be housed in individual stalls or hutches, either indoor or outdoor, until they are eight weeks old. Group housing, which all calves must be moved to after eight weeks of age, allows more natural social behaviour and greater opportunity for exercise and play, but also increases the risk of airborne diseases such as pneumonia – the most common disease of weaned calves. Essentially, it is impossible to artificially rear calves in a way which fulfils their natural needs and behaviours without compromising their health.

If the calves are to replace cows on the farm where they were born, they will be turned out to pasture when a few months old, weather permitting, but are kept separate from older animals until at least six months old to reduce the risk of disease. They will be inseminated when they are just over one year – many of them when they are only 13-14 months old, giving birth to their first calf nine months later.  The age of first insemination has been reduced over the years in order to increase profitability of the cows. They will then have 12-72 hours to revel in the joys of motherhood before their calf is taken away and they begin their gruelling life as a milk machine.

Female calves who are surplus to requirements on their birth farm will be sold on to other dairy farms, usually through a livestock market. Calves as young as seven days old may be brought to market and sold but concerns have been raised that calves even younger than that are being sold. These young calves may travel several hundred kilometres from farm to market and then to the purchasing farm.  This is not only very stressful for the calves but also exposes them to new pathogens which they have no resistance to, leading to an increased risk of disease.

The other half of females born each year will be dairy/beef crosses who are sold, again through a livestock market, to be reared for beef in a semi-intensive system. These systems involve grazing cattle outside in the summer and housing them during the winter, with slaughter age varying from 15-24 months.

Male Calves:

Male calves will never produce milk and therefore are of no use to a dairy farmer. Around half of the male calves born on British dairy farms are pure dairy calves while the other half are dairy/beef crosses.  All bull calves are removed from their mothers after several hours or maximum two days and housed in stalls or hutches and fed milk replacer just like female calves.  Most will also be sold on to semi-intensive beef farms through livestock markets.

Approximately 50 per cent of the pure dairy males will also be reared for beef, but as they will only produce ‘low quality’ beef they are raised in intensive systems.  After being separated from their mothers they are confined in buildings and yards for most of their lives – which is usually just over one year.  High mortality rates in these systems are common as it is not financially worthwhile for farmers to strive to keep them alive.

The rest of the male calves are either raised for veal or shot shortly after birth – the unwanted by-products of milk production. The current estimates are that 100,000 to 150,000 bull calves are shot within hours of birth in the UK every year.

God bless these beautiful babies.

Please keep writing to/phoning/emailing Raystede urging them to end the suffering caused by their cafe.  And maybe share with them the vast range of delicious cruelty-free ice cream they could be selling instead.

Thank you all so much for your continued support.  We knew this would take a long time so don't be disheartened.  Just keep on keeping on!