Cow Farms Are Far Less Idyllic Than You Might Think

What are farms that raise cattle called?

Within contemporary agriculture, farmers raise cattle for two purposes: milk and meat. More and more, the industry creates these products using intensive agricultural practices, more commonly known as factory farming. Cattle raised for meat live most of their lives in places known as feedlots, while cows used for milk production live in dairy barns.

What is a dairy farm like?

Factory dairy farms may be situated in rural areas, but that doesn’t mean cows live in the great outdoors. Modern-day dairy factory farms often confine cows indoors for the duration of their lives, where they're stuck in an endless cycle of forced impregnation, birth, and milking—given an inadequate rest period of only a few weeks each year for their bodies to recover from this demanding cycle of exploitation.

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Dairy cows are stuck in an endless cycle of forced impregnation, birth, and milking.

Dairy barns are crowded and often filthy. Cramped conditions prevent cows from grazing or even walking any meaningful distance, instead forced to spend their time standing or lying down. Some dairy farms even permanently tether cows to stalls, where they're prevented from socializing with other cows or wandering the limited confines of the barn.

What is a beef cattle farm like?

Cows doomed to become beef begin their lives on pastureland, where they graze for a few short months. While more natural than being confined indoors for their entire lives, these enclosed pasturelands often offer inadequate shelter and prevent cattle from moving away from inclement weather as they would in the wild. As a result, many cattle die from exposure to the elements while out on the range.

After only a few months, farmers load cattle onto transport trucks and send them to feedlots. These penned-in areas confine large numbers of cattle in a very small space, forcing them to live in conditions that become filthy and polluted from their own excrement. The average feedlot confines 4,000 cattle at a time, but the largest in the United States can accommodate 150,000.

Cattle are fed a grain diet (as opposed to grass and forage, which make up their natural diet) so that they gain as much weight as possible, allowing producers to sell their bodies for greater profits. Cattle are killed when they're 14-16 months old—barely a year.

In the wild and on animal sanctuaries, cattle can live for over 20 years.

Concerns about factory farms

There are around 1.6 billion animals—including chickens, pigs, and cows—languishing on the nation’s roughly 25,000 factory farms. These facilities cause countless problems for the environment, for people who consume animal products, for those who live and work near these facilities, and, of course, for the animals confined within. Cattle factory farms are no different.

Dirty water

Confining cows in such an unnatural, extreme way inevitably results in filthy conditions. Confined indoors for their whole lives, cows produce large amounts of excrement every day, which can give rise to life-threatening diseases—for both humans and animals. As a result, farmworkers must constantly wage battle against microbes using freshwater to clean the environment, the cows, and milking equipment.

Of the nearly 2,500 billion cubic meters of freshwater used throughout animal agriculture, 19% of this is used on dairy farms. This water usage affects clean water availability for human communities and also pollutes water bodies, as the contaminated water is pumped back into the environment.

Drug use

Farmworkers use several drugs on dairy cows throughout their lives. Antibiotics stave off infections caused by the filth and chronic stress imparted by intensively confined living conditions. Growth hormones force cows' bodies to produce unnaturally large volumes of milk. Sometimes these drug residues remain in the milk that people end up consuming, leading to health concerns.

Inhumane animal treatment

The term "inhumane" refers to treatment that causes harm or imparts cruelty. Sadly, cattle on both dairy and beef operations frequently suffer inhumane treatment throughout their lives.

On beef operations, male cattle undergo three traumatic procedures performed without any anesthesia (even though these operations are known to cause significant pain). Males who are not selected for breeding purposes will be castrated without pain relief—which, as you can imagine, causes excruciating suffering and significant blood loss. Another operation is known as dehorning, where a farmer cuts or burns off a cow’s horns in a process that can also cause acute pain. Finally, cattle are branded. Farmers heat a metal seal of a symbol denoting human ownership, then press it into a cow’s flank, burning the symbol permanently into their skin.

On dairy farms, inhumane treatment extends even further into the psychological realm. In order to lactate (produce milk), cows must first give birth to a calf, just as human mothers only lactate after giving birth to a child. But calves are forever robbed of their mothers’ milk, as they are torn away within moments of being born. These separations of mother and calf are known to cause severe anguish for mother cows, who have been observed crying out for hours or even days after a calf has been taken away.

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Mother cows cry out for hours or even days after a cow has been taken away.

Calves born on dairy farms face a limited number of bleak life paths, each of which is defined by inhumane treatment. Some will be raised separately and eventually moved into the milk production line. Others will be sent to veal crates, where they will endure extreme confinement and isolation. Veal calves are prevented from exercising to keep their muscles underdeveloped and tender before being slaughtered at just weeks old. Sometimes calves are also routed to feedlots, where they will spend a few short months with beef cattle before meeting their untimely ends at the slaughterhouse.

And some, the supremely unwanted, are shot on-site shortly after birth.

Cow facts

• Members of the Bovidae family (which also includes species like goats and sheep), cows roam every single continent on Earth except for Antarctica.
• Cows contribute to climate change. A single cow can expel between 160-320 liters of methane gas per day. Methane is one of the more potent greenhouse gases accelerating global warming.
• Humans have manipulated cows' bodies to produce seven and a half gallons of milk per day, in contrast to the single gallon of milk they would produce to feed their calves in the wild.

How you can help cows

From cheese and hamburgers to steaks and ice cream, the American diet has long featured the meat and secretions of cows. But things are changing. People like you are realizing that profit is no excuse for animal abuse—and they're fighting back.

As a consumer, your voice is powerful. Join the fight against animal abuse in our food system and send a strong message to corporations: Animals deserve better. Together, we can create a more compassionate future.