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In more intensive dairy farming, cows can easily be bred and fed to produce far more milk than one calf can drink. In the multi-suckler system, several calves are fostered onto one cow in addition to her own, and these calves' mothers can then be used wholly for milk production. More commonly, calves of dairy cows are fed formula milk from soon ...
For mother cows to continue producing milk, they give birth to one calf per year. If the calf is male, it is generally slaughtered at a young age to produce veal. [106] Cows produce milk until three weeks before birth. [103] Over the last fifty years, dairy farming has become more intensive to increase the yield of milk produced by each cow.
A fresh cow is a dairy term for a cow (or a first-calf heifer in few regions) who has recently given birth, or "freshened." The adjective applying to cattle in general is usually bovine. The terms bull, cow and calf are also used by extension to denote the sex or age of other large animals, including whales, hippopotamus, camels, elk and elephants.
Cows have an average gestation period of about 283 days, but that number can change based on the breed of the cow and the sex of the calf. Even age can change how long a cow mama is pregnant.
Cows have been known to "adopt" other calves in need of a parent. When this happens, it's no different than if the baby had been their biological child. In short, cows are fun-loving, great parents.
The etymology of the term "freemartin" is uncertain: speculations include that "free" may indicate "willing" (referring to the freemartin's willingness to work) or "exempt from reproduction" (referring to its sterility, or to a farmer's decision to not bother trying to breed a freemartin, or both), or that it may be derived from a Flemish word for a cow which gives no milk and/or has ceased to ...
For cows to reach high performance in milk yields and reproduction, they must be in great condition and comfortable in the system. Once an individual's welfare is reduced, so does her efficiency and production. This creates more cost and time on the operation, therefore most farmers strive to create a healthy, hygienic, atmosphere for their cattle.
Some species, such as cats, cows and domestic pigs, are polyestrous, meaning that they can go into heat several times per year. Seasonally polyestrous animals or seasonal breeders have more than one estrous cycle during a specific time of the year and can be divided into short-day and long-day breeders: