Dairy Beef

Some dairy farms proudly boast that they don’t slaughter young ‘bobby’ calves, instead raising bull calves for up to 2 years and selling them as veal or beef. 

During times when beef prices are high, the number of bobby calves slaughtered decreases, however this does not mean that cows are allowed to continue living. Even so-called ‘ethical dairies’ such as Victorian based How Now Dairy, which proudly states that its cows are allowed to live with “no separation and no slaughter,” sell their cows to slaughterhouses or saleyards as beef. 

Graph showing a negative correlation between high bobby calf deaths and high beef prices. Source: Dairy Australia. 

The main difference between beef and veal is the age of the cows when they are killed. In Australia, veal calves are less than 12 months old, and weigh under 70kg, while ‘dairy beef’ cows are usually killed between 12 and 18 months, weighing around 220kg. Naturally, cows, steers and bulls can live up to 20 years.

Calves raised for beef will sometimes have their horns removed or prevented from growing in a practice known as disbudding. 

The practice involves using a hot iron to cauterise developing horn buds so that steers will never grow horns. This is usually performed when a calf is between two and six weeks of age. 

Steers will also likely be castrated to improve the quality of their flesh and make them easier to manage. This is done either by surgically removing the testicles or using a rubber ring to restrict blood flow to the testicles until they fall off, a process which takes 2-3 weeks. 

All of these procedures are generally performed without anaesthetic or pain relief.

In 2023 - 2024, Farm Transparency Project captured footage of these dairy steers being killed in slaughterhouses in Tasmania and Victoria. In Tasmania, dairy steers were filmed at Wal’s Bulk Meats and the Local Meat Co, two of the five Tasmanian slaughterhouses we exposed for shocking animal abuse and breaches of state and national legislation. In Victoria, dairy steers were filmed at two Victorian slaughterhouses. In all cases, their deaths were filled with pain and terror. 

A dairy steer at a Victorian slaughterhouse (Farm Transparency Project, 2024)

While some dairy farms who raise calves for veal or beef slaughter still practise calf separation, others allow calves to remain with their mothers for longer periods of time. These farms generally use ‘anti-suckling devices’ such as nose spike rings, to prevent calves from suckling from their mothers. So-called ethical dairy, How Now Dairy, states that they begin to “push” weaning when calves are four-months old. In beef production, calves are weaned between 8-10 months of age. 

An Instagram video from How Now Dairy showing an anti-suckling device on a calf.