The dairy industry (in addition to supplying carcasses to the meat industry), also supplies skins to the leather industry. 

A 2026 peer-reviewed study states, "We considered bovine leather as a co-product of the milk and meat industry".

In the dairy industry, cows are repeatedly impregnated to keep them producing milk. Dairy Australia reports "nearly 90% of Australian dairy farms use artificial insemination". According to the RSPCA, most dairy calves are separated from their mothers within 24 hours of birth. Many of the calves they give birth to are unwanted by the industry. Male calves cannot produce milk, and not all female calves are needed as herd replacements. As a result, over 400,000 bobby calves are killed each year in Australia, usually within the first week of their lives. These calves are known in the industry as "bobby calves".

Calf skins

The commercial term "calf skin" (or "calfskin") includes both "bobby calves" and calves up to around six months of age. Their skins are soft, smooth, supple, and fine-grained... prized by the luxury leather market.

Don Oshman, publisher of Hidenet, a leather industry reporting service, stated that "Many European luxury bagmakers use calfskins, and people aren't eating much veal these days... A calf is raised in a pen and never goes outside, so [their] skin is blemish-free."

Slink skins 

For cows slaughtered while pregnant, the skin of their unborn calves, known as slink skins (or slunk skins), is of great value to the leather industry. 

Natural Exotics (a U.S. company who sell calf, donkey, and lamb slink skins), write about the calf slink skins they sell, "We offer a limited selection of chrome-tanned, unborn, or prematurely born calf skins, often called either slink skins or slunk skins. The hide side is soft and supple. They can be used for the tops of Eskimo mukluk vamps, boot tops, small rugs, table coverings, and other furniture coverings."

Natural Exotics notes that they sell calf slink skins in three sizes:

"Small: Early stage fetus with very, very short hair (1/4" to 1/2" long, depending on the skin)".

"Medium: Medium stage fetus with very short hair... (about 1/4") [approx. USD 127 each]".

"Large: Late stage unborn calves with longer hair, up to ¾ [approx. USD 208 each]".

Calf skins and slink skins are also sold in Australia.

"Spent" dairy cows

When a dairy cow's milk production declines, she is sent to slaughter, typically at around three to seven years old. This is a fraction of her natural lifespan of about twenty years. Her flesh is used for low-grade meat, and her skin is used for leather, just like the calves she spent her life 'producing'. 

The Australian Hide, Skin and Leather Exporters Association (AHSLEA) reports that the leather industry processes around eight million cattle hides in Australia each year. Those hides include beef cattle, "spent" dairy cows, and their calves. 

To learn more about how cows and calves are exploited in the dairy industry, please visit our Cow Dairy page.