Cows need milking or they’ll burst

“If we stopped milking cows, they would explode! We’re actually doing them a favour!”

I’d never have thought of this as a reason to keep milking cows. Are we actually saving them?

The milky way

I’ll admit, I originally didn’t know that they aren’t milk machines. They’re in fact like every other mammal, and only make milk after they’ve given birth. When looking at milk, cheese and eggs, I found out that dairy cows are made pregnant roughly once a year to keep the milk flowing, and their calves are taken away so we can have the milk instead.

Without us, a cow makes milk for her calf, and her calf drinks it.

Bred to overflow

Dairy cows have been bred for hundreds of years to make far more milk than a calf needs. So yes, if one suddenly stops being milked, her udder can get full and uncomfortable and she may be at risk of infections like mastitis.

But that’s a problem we bred into her. And even dairy farmers stop milking their cows every year, in the weeks before they give birth again. It’s called “drying off”, and the cow’s body simply stops making milk. Sanctuaries do the same with rescued dairy cows, and after that they never need milking again.

The bottom line

We make cows pregnant, take their calves, breed them to overproduce, and then say we have to milk them for their own good.

If we stopped breeding dairy cows, there’d be no cows needing to be milked. Existing cows could be dried off, and we’d just stop breeding more.