How are cows raised?

Cows or cattle are raised from birth to death or from being bought to being sold. They are fed hay, silage, grain or set to graze on a pasture or rangeland.

Dairy cows are impregnated and milked up until 2 months before parturition, then given a period to dry off (or stop milk production). After 2 months have gone by, they give birth to a calf, which is taken away from them after a day or two, and the cow is put to producing milk for people (getting milked once every 12 hours), where the calf is raised on milk replacer until it is 3 months of age. Calving season is year-round in dairy operations. Dairy cows keep doing this year after year until they are no longer productive or die of an illness (rarely do they die from natural causes like old age). As for the dairy calves, the bull calves, if they are not good enough to be used in any dairy producer's breeding program, are castrated and raised on hay, silage and grain until they are ready to be "harvested" at 18 to 24 months of age, or slaughtered for veal by the time they reach around 8 weeks of age. Most heifer calves will not be used for veal or for beef, so they are weaned at 3 months of age, and raised on a separate farm until they are of adequate breeding age (~15 months old) to be bred to start producing a calf and later be introduced into the milk supply. Heifers are primarily first bred by a calving-ease bull like a Jersey, but after they've had their first calf, they are most likely going to be bred by AI (artificial insemination) for the rest of their lives on that farm. Bulls are not kept because they are very dangerous to handle and often fatal to keep around.

Beef cows have it a little better than dairy cows, as they are not subject to live in a barn or stall all their lives. They are raised on pasture and/or rangeland in the grazing months, then moved to a drylot where they are wintered on hay and/or silage. Some folks prefer to winter-graze their cows on pasture, though. Calving and breeding season depends on the producer: some may prefer to have year-round breeding/calving schedules, others prefer more defined seasons. Some will breed in late August to have their calves in May, others like to have their cows bred from May to July to have the calving season from February to April. Purebred breeders prefer to calve in the winter to coincide with breeder sales the following year. Commercial cow-calf producers are more lenient in this regard. Beef cows are impregnated by a beef bull (occasionally AI, depending on the producer), and hold their calf for 285 days until they calve out. The calves are not taken away as soon as they are born, like the dairy calves are, but are raised on their dams for 6 to up to 10 months of age. For purebred operations, the best or good bull calves are kept intact, whereas for most commercial operations, all bull calves are steered. Some producers like to separate the cow-calf pairs according to whether a cow has a bull calf or a heifer calf, mostly to avoid accidental breeding if/when the heifers start puberty early. In operations where all bull calves are castrated, this is not necessary. Calves are then weaned from their mommas by different methods: an EasyWean nose-ring that is put on the calf that makes the cow kick her calf off every time it tries to suckle, but allows the calf to stay with their dams; fenceline weaning, where calves are separated from their dams by a page-wire or chicken-wire fence that allows them to see, hear and touch noses with each other, but does not allow the calf to suckle; or the traditional method of separating cows from calves, and selling the calves "right off the cow" by putting the calves on a cattle liner, hauling them to the auction mart, and being sold to another producer who will background them for beef, or raise them as breeding stock (only if the weaned calves are heifers). The cow is then allowed to dry up for 2 to 7 months, where she will be raised, along with the other dry pregnant cows, on feed and/or pasture until they calve again. Beef cows under go this every year until they are culled, die of illness or even of natural causes. Most beef producers keep bulls to breed their cows, and have them semen-tested every year. Vaccination and tagging programs are important to the beef cow herd (as well as the dairy one above), in order to keep the herd healthy and productive.