The average UK dairy cow is culled at around 5-6 years old despite a natural lifespan of 20 years. Improving longevity through better health management has major welfare implications.
Dairy cow longevity is a welfare indicator as well as an economic metric. Short productive lives reflect a system where cows are pushed to produce at levels incompatible with sustained health. Early culling means animals spend a higher proportion of their lives in productive stress. Improving longevity through health management, lameness prevention, and breed selection creates animals that can sustain production with fewer acute welfare failures. A cow that remains healthy through 6-8 lactations has a fundamentally different welfare trajectory than one culled at 3 due to preventable disease.