LING 451 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Dairy Cattle, World Trade Organization, Pastoralism
9 Jun 2018
School
Department
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Professor
How to make sure cows age well – Elsa Vasseur
• Lifespan of a dairy cow is programmed
o Normally a cow in the wild could live for 20 years, and the domestic/farming
cows are programmed to live for 10 years
o Dairy cows take 2 years to become a cow (able to produce) and the average is to
keep the cows for another 3-3.5 years after that (so 3-3.5 lactation years)
o Cows start to be profitable at their 3rd lactation (they start to recover their costs
then)
o Replacement rate is very high
o The reasos wh the aials dot sta i the heard are kow as out of cotrol
such as the cow is unable to reproduce any more etc.
• Sustainability
o Longevity
▪ An avenue to reduce environmental footprint while improve welfare
would be to increase the lifespan of dairy cows (and consequently
reducing the number of animals to rear)
o Economic profit
o Environmental impact
▪ Rearing animals for 2 years and culling them before they become
profitable
• Evidences that reducing replacement rate is an efficient strategy
to reduce GHGs
o Social
▪ Consumers concerns for welfare of farm animals
• Do poor welfare and low longevity go hand-in-hand?
o In 2009: improve comfort to increase longevity in tie-stall
• Risk factors for poor welfare in cow environment
o Tie-stall system of raising cows
▪ Over 70% of the farm in Canada have tie-stall (vs free stall)
▪ Size/length of the chain, quantity of bedding, width of the stall etc. are
risk factors
o ‘isk factors i farers attitudes
o Risks for poor longevity
▪ Low resting time (too much time spent lying down)
▪ Poor body condition (too thin?)
▪ Poor stall configuration
• Demonstrating stewardship towards animals
o Ex) WTO a level of welfare for the animals if you want to sell the animal products
on the world market
o Canada has a closed market on milk
▪ The farmers decide on how much milk to produce and how much to sell it
for (the only country in the world to do that)
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