Industrial farming at its odorless and flyless best. (Enormous banks of fans move the air and 'insect deterrent' we were told is added to the feed.) This is a factory of huge proportions (2700 head) run with exacting efficiency, 24/7/365. Every nameless and double-ear tagged Holstein cow serves as a cog in the monotonously and continuously turning wheel of milk production. These beautiful, intelligent creatures are clearly seen as commodities, not living, breathing individuals. While being given adequate space, footing, ventilation, silage, clean water, veterinary care and companionship, they're clearly there to serve one purpose for their overseers. That is, produce 10 gallons of milk each and every day and to birth a new calf every year, starting at year one and ending with a trip to the slaughterhouse when their milk production falters. We were told during our tour with our upbeat guide this is at 10 years of age, however 4 is a more likely span of time since the debilitating regimen of annual breeding and thrice daily milking will have a cow spent in a little more than 48 months according to dairy industry standards.
We were shown the solitary pens for the adorable female newborns, which are taken from their moms on the day they're born and fed a milk replacement made ironically enough from powdered milk along with a heaping dose of vitamins and antibiotics. Larger group pens are next for them and then they're sent to an open area barn before being shipped out to Batavia, NY for several months until they're ready to come back and begin the grueling cycle of artificial insemination and milking. The less lucky males newborns are immediately sent to a Lebanon, CT farm to be made into veal, slaughtered at about 5 months of age.
Questions about the 'harvesting' or culling of the spent milk cows were glossed over with a half-truth about being sent to an auction to be bought up by another (perhaps smaller) farm that can still make a profit from the animals. The implication was that they would be retired to a homestead farm and put out to pasture for the remainder of their days (cue the Disney music). In actuality, we know that these auctions are for meat and the dairy cows having served a short and debilitating life on concrete are now being shipped off to another set of concrete floors, this time in the blood-soaked slaughter house.
Dairy producers need to be up front and tell the awful truth about what happens to their cows in the end. Dress is up anyway you like it (and they certainly do their darnedest) dairy cattle are pushed to their physical limits and as a result live short, terribly dull lives that inevitably end in execution for further exploitation, this time for their flesh. Please think of this next time you have a craving for ice cream or steak. Is your momentary pleasure worth the life-long suffering of thousands, especially when there are so many, MANY great-tasting, plant-based alternatives on the market? The more you know, the less appealing this facility is to your sensibilities. read more
