Page 27 - The Welfare of Cattle

4 the WeLfare of CattLe

as a consequence “healing is replaced with treating, caring is supplanted by managing, and the art
of listening is taken over by technological procedures.” The parallels between his remarks and our
discussion about animal welfare strike me, and Dr. Lown reminds us all to guard against “manag-
ing” at the expense of “caring”. Please also note that the modern germ theory of disease causation,
and the resulting attention to hygiene that resulted in improved surgery survival rates, only existed
in the last ~150 of those 3,000 years. The goal is to care AND pay attention to science-based facts.
“Caring”, for me in the context of food animals, includes a commitment first to the animal,
then to “managing” the animal’s performance. The word “husbandry” reflects a bond between the
animal and the farm owner, and implies a moral responsibility on the part of the owner to care and
provide for the animals under their care. The animal is and must be more than a “commodity” or
“profit center”, and attention to the cow’s needs and wants beyond those required to simply produce
milk or meat is more than expected – it’s promised in the husbandry contract we entered into when
we domesticated animals. This contract is founded on the provision of benefits to both the involved
animals and humans. At the same time the producer that invests more than the value received for
their product isn’t in business for long.
Stewardship is another term that will appear often in this book, reflecting the belief that it’s not
about what the animal does for us, but what we do for them to compensate for their contributions
to our well-being. We rightfully expect more consideration for the animal from people who raise
animals for food, use animals as power in their work, or keep animals as pets. Animals are sentient
beings and beef and dairy producers as their custodian have a solemn responsibility for their care
and keeping.
The commitment to food animals is not, however, one of longevity. Food animals go to market
at various ages based on market preferences, carcass yields, and cultural influences. Veal calves
and broiler chickens go to slaughter at weeks of age, while lambs and market pigs go at months of
age. Beef go to market between 1 and 2 years of age for prime cuts, and younger or older for less
valuable cuts. Dairy cattle go to slaughter at whatever age they are no longer competitive with their
herd mates.
Rather than longevity, our commitment is to how these animals are cared for during the time
they are in our production systems. The contract may include a responsibility for providing some
level of protection from extreme weather, predation, starvation, malnutrition, bullying, premature
pregnancy as well as avoidable pain, disease, and injury. If injury or disease occurs our commit-
ment is to treat it rapidly and appropriately. At the same time, we should be committed to provide
housing designed and maintained to prevent injury or disease and that allows for many normal
behaviors.
Dairy cattle have value as meat in the slaughter market, with that option triggered when a cow’s
milk production falls to a level that does not provide the farm sufficient income over expense. At
that point, they are removed from the milking herd to enter the slaughter beef market and replaced
with a milking animal that promises to be more economically competitive. An increase in income
per unit of milk, or a decrease in operational expenses, or a combination of the two allows for lower
turnover rates and longer herd longevity.
The current discussion about welfare in the dairy industry seems to be distracted by a focus
on the business entity that owns the dairy (pejoratively referred to by many as “corporate farms”).
The truth is today’s dairy industry is dominated by the family farm, usually with multiple family
generations living and working on the property. Dairy businesses are organized into three legal
entities: owners as individuals, including sole proprietorships and partnerships (most often fam-
ily partnerships including parents and kids, or brothers, sisters, and in-laws); family corporations
wholly owned by family members; and non-family related corporations. Family corporations are
still family run businesses, just legally organized to provide: tax benefits; the ability to more easily
transfer assets between individuals and generations; improved liability protection and easier access
to borrowing.