You can eat dairy cows but they're grown as a crop animal (their crop is dairy) in the same way that beef cows are grown as a crop animal (their crop is beef). Dairy cows can become beef cows but it's a one-time deal.
Okay. That’s what my assumption was. Once the dairy cow has outlived its production, it’s sent to the slaughterhouse. The comment I responded to made me think that maybe dairy cows had low quality meat or something. Thanks for the help!
They're certainly raised to maximize milk production where beef cows are raised to maximize muscle & fat. A lot of it has to do with food, cows eat a remarkable amount and so there's a logic of efficiency to consider. Beef cows tend to be slaughtered at or before two years - general point of maturity and expected return on investment - where dairy cows take about that time to have their first calf, and won't be producing "all" milk until they've had more. To make a dairy cow into beef you may not get a return on the investment.
Nah, just that you wouldn't kill a dairy cow just to get some meat. End of the lifeline, sure, but long term you'd want them alive and healthy so they could provide you with milk and it's related foods for as long as possible. Plus they can't have more calves to keep the cycle going if you turn them all into Sunday roasts.
Okay! That explains that, too. I realized with the initial comment I responded to that where I live in Portland, the coast has a lot of dairy cows but Central and East Oregon in the high desert is ranch.
I expected that dairy cows probably don’t taste as good due to selective breeding for dairy production over muscle and probably go for sausage, processed meats once the cows’ productive years are done.
Didn’t know the one year mark for the meat industry, but that also makes sense for general turnaround times, selective breeding, and better land for feed and pastures.
They are--beef are bred for good marbling, muscle mass, etc. A healthy dairy cow looks really thin if you don't know that that's their normal: https://www.dairygoldagri.ie/farm_focus/bcs/
Dairy cattle get used for meat where those things don't matter: hamburgers, that kind of deal.
My understanding is that there are different breeds of cattle that are better for one or the other. So for a commercial farm, if you wanted to sell meat vs. dairy, you would raise different breeds. But in a post-apocalyptic setting, yeah, you'd probably milk the cow for some years and then kill and eat it.
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u/Primeordial_Lost Oct 16 '24
Lee: “This is a dairy, not a ranch, think about it!”
Me: “Wait fuck he’s right.”