What Is Cattle Farming?

Cattle farming, simply put, is a form of business aimed at raising cows, bulls, oxen, and calves to be used for various purposes, the most prominent being dairy, beef, and leather.

Dairy Cows

Dairy cows are those cows who have the capacity to give birth and produce milk for their babies. That milk is then taken to be marketed for consumption by humans. Cattle farmers specifically breed dairy cows to produce large quantities of milk. In the U.S., the Holstein-Friesian and Jersey breeds are usually used on dairy farms. 

To keep the production of milk constant, a cow has to continue lactating. This is ensured by impregnating the cow every year via artificial insemination, a method that uses the sperm of bulls considered to be genetically superior to inseminate cows and ensures profitable offspring. The calves hardly taste their mothers’ milk—they are rather put on a soy milk formula. Calves who are capable of future dairy production undergo the same cycle as their mothers, and those who cannot produce dairy are put to use in other industries.

Beef Cattle

Beef cattle are bulls and calves raised to be killed for meat. Many of the calves are turned into veal, by being killed 2-3 days after birth, and sometimes even after 2-3 hours. The rest are raised to be fattened for beef. Just as with dairy cows, beef cattle are selectively bred, to help produce and sell different commodities, like leaner meats. Most beef cattle in the U.S. are put in enclosures where they survive in unsanitary conditions, while only a small percentage are given access to pasture.

Leather

Often thought of as a “byproduct” of the dairy and meat industries, leather has in fact become one of the main sources of profit for cattle farmers. Leather is the skin of a cow, bull, or calf. It is usually young calves that are killed, for their soft and unmarked skin.

How Is a Cattle Farm Maintained? 

Maintaining a cattle farm mainly requires pastures for early feeding, and “feedlots” where cattle are fed grains to be fattened up for slaughter. It also involves handling, grazing, housing, fly control, and reproduction.

Handling

Cows need to be handled in a way that prevents stress or injury to them, and that ensures their overall well-being. But quite the opposite is the hallmark of cattle farming. Cows are stationed on concrete floors for a long period, damaging their hooves and also causing sore joints. Many dairy cows are milked using machines, which among other things cause mastitis, leading to pus formation in milk. Cattle handling also involves literally breaking up families, by separating lactating cows from their babies, so that the milk can be used for dairy and the babies can be used as meat.

Grazing

Cattle farming needs ample pasture space for grazing. After a few weeks, calves and young cows then have to move to a feedlot to be fattened for meat. The problem with the feed given to cattle is that this diet is mostly focused on producing more milk or better meat, without much concern for how good the diet is for the cattle themselves. Sometimes, instead of being transferred to feedlots, cattle are allowed to feed on mostly grass and are labeled as “grass-fed” cattle.

A lot of the time cattle are not given access to pasture for grazing for very long. It is common for certain meat and dairy items to have a specific “pasture-raised, free-range” label on them to verify that cattle did indeed get some access to pasture, yet these terms don’t have legal backing when applied to cattle. 

Housing

Housing for cattle needs to fulfill many requirements, including cleanliness, personal space, and proper ventilation. But in reality, the cattle industry hardly meets these needs. Living a life of confinement, dairy and beef cattle are kept in unsanitary conditions, amidst their own feces, and are forced to inhale toxic fumes. Living with no personal space, cattle also have to deal with crowding, and at times suffocation. It is a life of being rooted to one spot, with just one imposed purpose—to be put to use for humans.

Fly Control

Seemingly harmless, flies carry a lot of diseases that cattle are susceptible to. Given the unclean housing conditions and crowding in cattle farms, fly numbers increase. Farmers often use pesticides and insecticides to deal with the problem, but that causes more problems than it solves. Firstly, all the surroundings get contaminated with the chemicals used in pesticides. This includes the air, and the food for cattle, which invariably leads to milk contamination and harm to cattle health. Cattle farms become hotspots for bioaccumulation of substances within animals, which ensures that these problems persist for a long time. 

Reproduction

To ensure a steady supply of milk and to have calves for leather and veal, reproduction is necessary. However, if left to exercise their own will, cows will rarely become pregnant every year, given the mental and physical toll that pregnancy takes on their bodies. Hence cattle farm management involves artificial insemination to ensure that the cow gets pregnant every year with good genes, ensuring a continuous supply of milk, meat, and other products for humans.

Over time, repeatedly giving birth leads to ruptures of the uterus and weakening of their bodies far ahead of the usual timescale. After 5-6 years of continuously giving birth, they are sent to be slaughtered. In some countries that do not allow cattle slaughter, they are instead left on the streets, where they can eventually die from eating plastic. 

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