Most dairy cows are culled before age five, far short of their natural lifespan, due to production-linked health failures that could be reduced through better management.
Early culling represents the endpoint of chronic welfare failure — cows worn out by metabolic demands, chronic lameness or repeated infection before they reach middle age. A cow culled at four years has spent most of its productive life in states of compromised health. Extending productive life requires breeding priorities that include health alongside yield, housing designs that reduce lameness risk, transition cow management that prevents metabolic disease and routine monitoring that catches problems early. Longevity is both a welfare goal and an economic signal — long-lived cows are well-managed cows.