cows?

[hedge]

what would happen to a cow if you didnt milk it?
thanks hedge

[Ethel]

The milk would dry up.

A cow only stays in milk because her calf is taken from her and she is hooked up to a milking machine. (The calf becomes veal)

If a cow used to being milked suddenly is no longer milked, she will suffer pain and discomfort and possibly get an infection. The milk will eventually leak of its own accord, production of milk will slow until it eventually dries up. No long lasting damage, unless she becomes infected.

[Clanad]

The infection to which Ethel refers can be very serious. Even healthy cows can experience mastitis, which can and often is fatal unless treated aggressively with anti-biotics...

[Noweia]

Dairy cows are normally dried off after a period of around 10 months in milk. At this point the udder isn't producing as much milk as at the start of lactation, so it's not so bad for the cow. The udder eventually stops producing milk. If the same thing happens during the peak months in lactation, the udder can get big and painful before it stops producing milk.

In response to the mastitis discussion, cows can get mastitis at any time of year, not just at drying off or during the dry period. Subclinical mastitis is a big problem among dairy herds today (the cows don't have any signs of infection, but the milk has an increased number of cells in it), with a significant proportion of the national milking herd having this. It's not fatal and commonly isn't any problem for the cow, just for the farmer whose cell counts have gone through the roof!.

Clinical mastitis (i.e. signs of infection) is quite common and it is the really scute cases that are potentially fatal. Many cases of clinical mastitis aren't though and the cow gets a hot, sore quarter that is easily dealt with.

[Noweia]

...continuing with the veal issue. About half of dairy cows are bred to a dairy bull with the aim of producing female dairy calves to act as replacements for older cows in the herd. Half of these calves (i.e. 25% of calves born) are male. They aren't much good for beef and can't produce milk, so they aren't worth anything (a matter of economics, nobody likes it that they're effectively worthless) Sometimes they're reared for beef, but they fetch a poorer price at market than beef animals, and the farm often makes a loss in rearing them. They can go for veal but many don't. In recent years it was easier and cheaper to put them down at birth, than to send them off for veal, or rear them.

The other half of the dairy herd is bred to a beef bull to produce cross calves to be reared for beef.

And who said farming was simple? lol!

[terambulan]

Further to the 'worthless' calves.....am sure the skins can be marketed as rugs, bags or such.

There's a shop near me that sells zebra rugs @ �2k! I have a sheepskin rug and would purchase a calf skin for cushions.

[Noweia]

There's not much of a market in the UK for cattle hides any more. There used to be loads of tanneries processing them, but not a lot of the hides go abroad. Most hides used in the UK come from abattoirs.

[Noweia]

...that should have been 'now a lot of the hides go abroad'. My bad!