I'm not showing a clip of any sort or anything like that. I was curious though, if you think buying one of the baby cows that are going to the slaughter houses be worth it? I mean, I'm sure they'll get stronger and be fine, or am I completely wrong and will they just have tons of screwy health problems the rest of their lives? Just curious because I kind of want to find where one is once I get property fenced in and go buy one. Also, does anyone know where they take place, or is it just really easy to find that online? Thanks.

Do you know anything abouty cattle, if you dont know where they are even sold I would assume not. They arent anything like a big dog.

Also if you plan to buy a calf or baby cow plan on buying its mother too because they are sold as cow calf pairs at auction. Sometimes a dairy farmer will sell the bull calves through radio ad programs or news papers as they usually keep heifers for replacements. Dairy bull calves are usually sold to individuals wanting to raise a butcher calf of their own and are usually well fed and cared for because they want to eat healthy beef. We have done this before our selves and it usually has 40 acres of grass to its self.

I haven't even looked into where they auction, but I do know there's a few real close to where I live. And people that sell their calves for veal will not sell them with the mom, since they tear them from their mother at a young age. That is what I wanted to do buy a baby calf that has no chance and at least give it a chance to a normal life.

Those are usually raised on special farms. Calves old enough to go to the sale barn by them selves are too old to be considered veal.

I probably shouldn even try to explain it because most people not involved with the farming community do not know. I am not a personal fan of veal but I am not opposed to its production. 99% of the farms they are raised on take excellent care of their animals. It doesnt make sense to mistreat or neglect the the health of the animal as it is only healthy ones that make them a profit. I am sure there are a few farms out there that do a bad job and make a bad name for all the ones who are doing right. The veal calves are actually placed in a much safer cleaner enviroment than the natural one they were born in and are more closley monitored. There are always a few bad apples making a ruckus and making the news. I am from a farming family and admit my bias but if someone doesnt not agree with veal production then dont drink milk.

Contact the local feed stores, livestock equipment suppliers, large animal vets and county extension office to ask about livestock auctions. Any of those folks should be able to provide you with the beginning steps in your quest for a livestock auction.

Also, you may want to talk to a slaughter house and let them know that you are in the market for a calf. They are aware of whomever raises cattle in the surrounding areas.

Are you in the market for a dairy cow, a beef steer or what are your intentions?

Good luck.

Basset_Lover

You know, everyone HATES puppymills right? Yet where in the heck do you think that gallon of milk is coming from?


A cow mill. Straight up. Using cows as machines for our benefit. I went to a large 'modern' milk production facility (you really couldn't call it a dairy farm).

Several HUNDRED cows were in a large barn. It was well ventilated. They had sand mounds near their feeders to lay on occasionally. Most the time they were standing on wet, dirty, slimy cement. They eat, sleep, and are milked. They go from one barn to another. Never any pasture or grazing time.

Their tails are CUT OFF so it is easier to attach the VERY high tech milking equipment that tells exactly how much milk each cow is giving for the day. She better keep it up, or else off to hamburger she goes.

They also don't bother to work to hard to get sick cows well. They just sell them for meat if they get pneumonia. When they give birth the mothers are separated immediately from their calves.

From day 1 the calves are fed milk out of buckets. Never knowing their mother AT ALL. The girls get to follow in their mothers wonderful life. The boys well..... they go off to auction ASAP. With in weeks of birth. Either for veal or feeder calves.

It really sucks to be a dairy cow right now, but no one cares and no one really WANTS to know.

But Dogs are companion animals..meaning they bond with people and have emotions...cows are NOT companion animals. They are food animals. Yes, I think there are certain amounts of care they need for their wellbeing..but to me a cow is food..meat or milk. So it is completely unacceptable to keep dogs like they are livestock because dogs need interaction and love but cows aren't mentally damaged by being in a small confined area without interaction with people.

i agree with you ali. i stopped drinking milk and eating dairy about 10 years ago after reading about the treatment of cows. it is disgusting. and many people don't think about how the mistreatment of those animals affects the food as well! cows are pumped full of antibiotics to give them longer staying time. they are stressed and weary. the quality of the milk is affected. those hormones and antibiotics go right into the food...

Wow, well, thanks for all the replys. As for alicat, I'm not even going to go there. I myself, am not a farmer, as one of you are very concerned about, but, majority of my friends were, and I learned a lot :P. Well there are LOTS of videos of mistreating animals on farms. Hm, I'm going to be getting a dairy cow, for basset lover's question. After that I'll get a Longhorn, obviously not from a market or anything like that. Just to say matter of factly, there are TONS of farmers that actually care for their animals if they get sick, they don't just sell them off for money. Everyone I crossed cares a lot about them even if something small comes up they get all nervous and take care of it right away. :|, I miss them, wish I didn't move. :P

Oh, and tatersmom, I'm not against veal production either, I just don't eat it. I never will. I just want to save one from being killed so it can live a normal, happy life. Maybe not normal, as it won't be bred...but you get the idea.

Maybe on huge production farms they are "maltreated" but certainly not on small dairy farms. Where your only income are your cows, and are such treated as royalty.

The same could be considered for say... oh.. why dogs!! Puppymills pumping out pups for money, or... people breeding for the betterment of the breed.

(Okay not totally the same, but you get my point.)

Since we "wouldnt understand anyways"... why bother explaining? Get off your high cow already..

Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans and other mammals do, to nourish their young. But the millions of cows who live on U.S. dairy farms are forced into a vicious cycle of continuous pregnancy so that they will produce milk for human consumption. Their female calves are slaughtered immediately or used to replace their mothers in the dairy herd, and many male calves suffer a fate that is completely different but no less cruel—one of confinement, darkness, malnutrition, and slaughter.

Given the chance, cows nurture their young and form lifelong friendships with one another. They play games, have a wide range of emotions, and demonstrate personality traits, such as vanity. But most cows raised for the dairy-products industry are intensively confined, leaving them unable to fulfill their most basic desires, such as nursing their calves, even for a single day. They are treated like milk-producing machines and are genetically manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones that cause them to produce more milk. While cows suffer in animal factories, humans who drink their milk increase their chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, several types of cancer, and many other ailments.

I was raised on a small farm. We didn't mistreat our animals. We had goats. We drink their milk. The babies drank their milk, until they were weaned, then we continued to milk the goat until it stopped producing milk. If a goat didn't have milk we bottle feed her babies the milk from another mother who did. Many farm people love their animals. Money can make people go bad and there are bad people in all walks of life.

I don't drink milk because I don't like processed cow's milk and I don't own a goat. I do eat cows, chickens, and fish.

Why do you think it is okay to eat plants? Don't plants have feelings too? They do and look how they are treated. Left outside in all kinds of weather, with bugs crawling all over them. Oh, I forgot planes fly over their heads and dump poison on them. When the time comes someone with poopy hands comes and pulls them out of the ground as if they were not a living thing. How much more do you want to know about the miss treatment of little plants?

If you don't want to eat living things stop eating - I really don't care. Life can be cruel, but don't act like you are a better person because you don't eat animals, only plants.

Just within the last year a lady gave her baby a spinach smoothie, it killed him. It was the poopy figure disease - e-coli. She thought she was doing the right thing by only giving her son healthy snacks. I bet she will think twice about what she feeds her next child.

***Edited By: Denim on 6/18/2007 3:05:14 PM***
Reason: add a word

My husband and I have a diary farm. We only have a barn that will hold 40 cows. The cows calve and after about 3 days (6 milkings) the calves are then put on pail so that the milk from the cow can be put in the tank.

I don't know who posted about the ones getting sick not being taken care of properly and shipped off to be made into hamburger; but that is not true. If a cow is treated with any type of antibiotic for pnuemonia (i think that was the disease mentioned in that post) they have a slaughter and milk hold, which means they cannot be used for human consumption or their milk cannot go in the tank to be sold in the store.

Our cows all have names and are so spoiled rotten that they allow you to come up to them in the pasture (yes they actually get to see green grass- about 200+ acres of it) and pet them, lay on them, whatever they don't care. But a cows lifecycle is not long (the oldest we have in the barn is 13 years) and when their time is up (their bones can't handle it anymore - can't get bred back - or their milk production gets low or infected - mastitis or similar diseases) they do go off to the slaughterhouse. It is just a fact of farming.

The female calves are not sold off - as most dairies will use the heifer calves as replacements (as a heifer usually will not calve the first time until they are 2 years old and you don't know what is going to happen in 2 years). If they are sold, they are usually not sold as veil; as any smart farmer can sell them for a replacement heifer to another farmer or at auction for better than veil prices.

Bull calves are sold off after about 4-5 days. We do keep a couple for us to raise ourself (usually the jersey bull cavles as they are so small and don't make high sale because of their size) for meat.

And you can go to an auction house to find a nice calf if you are planning on raising it (for pet, meat whatever). We take all our calves and cows to Equity (I live in Wisconsin) Livestock. Very rarely will you see a sick calf at auction (at the place we take ours anyways).

So for those of you who think that all farms are bad are definitly wrong. It is us small farmers that are trying to make ends meet as the large farms take over.

Just wanted to add that I grew up next to a dairy farm, where the cows were treated like royalty. Also, my husband purchased beef cattle at auctions several times, and we've never had a problem with purchasing unhealthy animals.