Dairy cows are biologically capable of living 20+ years, yet most are culled after just 3–4 years of milk production. The welfare implications of early culling deserve examination.
The short productive lives of modern dairy cows are not accidental but structural — a consequence of breeding programmes that prioritised milk yield above health and longevity. High-producing cows are physiologically closer to their limits than lower-producing counterparts; the metabolic demands of producing 10,000+ litres annually leave little biological buffer for immune function, reproduction, or tissue repair. The diseases that cluster around calving in high-producing cows — ketosis, mastitis, metritis, lameness — represent real ongoing suffering that is so common it has been normalised. Selecting for longevity and moderate production, as some progressive breeding programmes are doing, would produce cows that live longer, healthier lives — a welfare gain that also makes economic sense through reduced replacement costs.