Beef cows

The beef industry

The beef industry is huge and complex, with around 8 million beef cattle in the UK as of July 2023. This is made up of several ‘supply’ chains, including ‘prime cattle’ raised solely for beef production and cows or calves from the dairy industry. Some estimates say that around 50% of beef production comes from the dairy herd, either from unwanted male calves who cannot produce milk or mothers who are no longer able to produce the vast quantities of milk demanded of them.

Even in ‘good’ systems where cattle are raised outdoors, ‘grass fed’ or organic, mutilations and cow-calf separation is standard practice as well as the terrifying journey to the slaughterhouse where their lives are cut cruelly short.

Where does your beef start life?

‘Suckler calves’ are those who are reared by their mothers until they are forcibly weaned, by human intervention, then transported to ‘finishing’ farms where they’ll be fed a rich diet designed to fatten them up for slaughter. ‘Finishing’ is a euphemism for getting calves to the most profitable weight possible to make the most money.

Forced weaning places nutritional, social and physical stress on the calf as well as the psychological stress of separating mothers and babies. In natural conditions, male calves would suckle for 9-12 months while females would live with their mothers for life. Some farmers will only separate mothers and calves with fences while others will use ‘anti-suckling devices’ like the nose flap pictured below. These are considered low-stress by the industry because they allow families to stay together yet calves have an innate need to suckle and experience frustration when unable to do so. Some devices are designed to be painful so that mothers will kick the calf to discourage suckling, risking injury to both her udders and young calves.

A surprising fact is that half of all beef comes from the dairy industry: buying beef quite literally funds the dairy industry, and vice versa. Figures from the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board show that around 280,000 dairy calves (likely males who cannot produce milk) entered the beef supply chain between 2016-2018. These calves will suffer immensely: from the stress of transport to and from ‘livestock’ markets and a weakened immune system from being fed liquid milk replacement (and moved onto dry food as soon as possible, to maximise profits) mortality rates are high.

A note on veal

‘White veal’ is the name given to the meat of calves (usually male calves discarded by the dairy industry) that is very pale in colour due to the conditions in which they are reared: a diet of powdered milk and restricted iron, and restricted movement to prevent the meat from darkening. For meat to be legally classed as veal, the calves must be less than 8 months old at the time of slaughter.

In the UK, there is now little demand for white veal but there have been attempts to popularise ‘rosé veal’ which is meat that’s slightly darker due to calves being allowed some movement and slightly more fibrous diets. Calves can still be kept in isolation with little to no bedding, and still experience high rates of stress, disease and death.

Worryingly, the dairy industry exports thousands of young calves to Europe every year, where veal is still popular. For example, 95,000 calves were exported to Europe between January-March 2023 from Ireland alone, many of whom will enter the veal industry.

A dead calf inside a dairy farm veal crate, covered in flies, Spain 2010 (credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/AnimalEquality/We Animals)

Routine cruelty

Cattle naturally evolved with horns as defence against predators, but when housed in close confinement with high numbers of other cows, these horns can be dangerous. The standard, routine practice is to remove these. If a horn has already attached itself to the skull, then it can be removed with saws, cutting wire or horn shears. Dehorning is an incredibly painful procedure, so a local anaesthesia and cauterisation (to stem the bleeding) is used. In calves, whose ‘buds’ have not yet developed into horns, a hot iron or burning chemical is applied to kill the tissue, permanently preventing growth. Even with anaesthetic, calves are at risk of acute stress, infection of open wounds, and post-operative chronic pain [3].

Male calves are castrated despite being slaughtered before reaching sexual maturity. This is likely to encourage weight gain so that they make more money at slaughter or when sold at market [3]. The testes will either be fitted with a tight rubber ring, which restricts blood flow and causes the testes to wither and drop off, or the scrotum will be sliced open and the testes removed, known as ‘surgical castration’. Anaesthetic isn’t required if the calf is less than two months old.

These procedures are completely legal and routine, practiced across the dairy and beef industries.

Slaughter

Most cattle in the UK are slaughtered at around two years old, but there is a spike in slaughters around 15 months likely due to the increase in intensive systems that ‘finish’ animals (fatten them up to slaughter weight) much quicker. Cows over 30 months of age are not allowed to enter the food supply chain due to risk of BSE (known as ‘mad cow disease’) so there is another spike in slaughters around 29 months of age. A cow’s natural lifespan can be 20 years or more.

Cows are most commonly stunned mechanically with a bolt shot into their heads. The percussive impact of the bolt is supposed to cause instant unconsciousness, so that the cow cannot see, hear or feel the next stage: being shackled by their hind legs, suspended from an overhead conveyor belt, and their throat cut. They are then bled to death.

UK law states that all animals must be stunned before slaughter. However, there are exceptions, such as non-stun slaughter for religious purposes, and cases where stunning has not worked, like when cows move their heads and workers ‘miss’ the bolt gun, having to make several, excruciatingly painful attempts to stun them. There is always the risk that animals may regain consciousness too quickly and be awake for the bleeding and butchering.

Prior to stunning, the moments leading up to slaughter are equally troubling. Cows are social, emotionally intelligent animals who are affected by the anxious cries of other cows. The smell of fear and blood often leads to futile attempts to escape.

Take action

Killing an animal for food can never be considered humane. Animals’ lives are as important to them as ours are to us, and none go willingly to slaughter. Choosing organic or ‘free range’ meat, milk and eggs continues to cause suffering – the only viable alternative is to adopt an animal-free diet.

References

[1] Sowell, B.F., Mosley, J.C., & Bowman, J.G.P. (1991). Social behaviour of grazing beef cattle: Implications for management. The American Society of Animal Science, 77, 1-6.

[2] Medeiros, I., Fernandez-Novo, A., Astiz, S., et al. (2022). Historical evolution of cattle management and herd health of dairy farms in OECD countries. Veterinary Science, 9(3), 125.

[3] Phillips, C. (2023). Farming cattle. In A, Knight, C. Phillips, & P. Sparks (Eds.), Routledge handbook of animal welfare (pp.76-88) Routledge.