Most dairy cows are culled well before their natural lifespan due to production decline, lameness, and disease. Extending longevity through better welfare management benefits both cows and producers.
The short productive life of most dairy cows reflects a welfare system optimized for milk output at the expense of cow health and longevity. Lameness, mastitis, and reproductive failure — the leading culling causes — are largely preventable through improved housing, nutrition, and management. Farms that invest in cow comfort consistently achieve longer productive lives, demonstrating that welfare and longevity are aligned. Extending cow longevity is both an ethical goal and an economic incentive: replacement costs are high, and longer-lived, healthier cows produce more milk over their lifetime. Longevity as a welfare metric gives producers concrete, measurable targets for continuous improvement.