Modern dairy cows are culled at an average age of 5-6 years despite a natural lifespan of 20+ years, reflecting the welfare costs of high-yield production systems.
The early culling of dairy cows is both a welfare indicator and a driver of welfare problems. The metabolic demands of high-yield production predispose cows to lameness, udder infections, and reproductive disorders that end their productive lives prematurely. From a welfare perspective, a system in which the majority of animals die at less than one-third of their natural lifespan — and primarily from diseases that are partly management-related — raises fundamental questions about the sustainability and ethics of current production models.