Modern dairy cows are typically culled by age 5-6, far short of their natural 20-year lifespan, with declining productivity, lameness, and reproductive failure as leading causes.
Early culling reflects chronic welfare compromise in high-production dairy systems. Cows bred for maximum milk yield experience metabolic diseases, skeletal stress, and reproductive exhaustion. The high cull rates indicate systemic welfare problems that are normalized by industry but represent significant suffering for individual animals.