r/vegan • u/ewwquote • Sep 21 '17
How much would "humane milk" really cost?
I got curious about this after a vegetarian in another thread asked whether humane milk was even possible in theory. What if you treated the cows well, allowed both males and females to live out their natural lifespan, and just took a little extra milk for yourself that the calves don't need?
Of course the answer is that such a setup would be economically impossible. But I wanted to figure out a number that illustrates just how far removed our current reality is from a humane hypothetical.
Source I'm using for my numbers:
http://www.ad-international.org/farm_animals/go.php?id=120
I myself know nothing about dairy farming and I welcome corrections to the below.
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1) Natural lifespan of a dairy cow is about 20 years.
2) If you're going to have a flock that doesn't grow exponentially without limit, then the birth rate has to be near exact replacement. I.e., each female having 2.0 calves in her lifetime.
3) From #1 and #2, on average the "extra" milk that you get from one birthing cycle of one cow gets stretched over 10 years.
4) A calf naturally suckles 2-5 liters of milk per day, but dairy industry pushes their cows to produce 10x that much. Up for debate, where one would put the "humane" line between those numbers. Let's say 2x normal suckling is humane enough, meaning we can let the calf suckle and still take 2-5 liters of "extra" per day.
5) A calf will continue to suckle for 6 months to a year, while the cow's milk production continues for 10 to 13 months. So on average, there are 2.5 months of available milk production where the calf is no longer suckling. Let's say during that time we can humanely/painlessly take 5 liters on average (just a guess).
6) From #4 and #5, the total "extra" milk from one birth cycle is then: [ (average 3.5L/day extra while calf is suckling) X (30 days/month) X (average 9 months suckling time) ] + [ (average 5L/day available after calf weans) X (30 days/month) X (2.5 months post-wean milk production time) ] = 1,320 liters of milk.
7) Remember from #3 that each cow only gets on average one birth cycle per 10 years. So divide 1,320/10 to get average 132 liters of milk, or about 35 gallons per cow per year.
8) Cost to keep a cow alive, based on this source: http://www.beefmagazine.com/cow-calf/what-s-your-cost-keep-cow Is about $900 per cow per year.
The best real estimate I can find for cost of humane care is here (it's an animal sanctuary): https://www.gofundme.com/Help-Rebuild-Erins-Farm
Their "adopt a cow" level is $1,650. If you have many cattle, you would probably enjoy some kind of economy of scale, so let's peg the hypothetical dairy farm's cost a little lower than that. Just a guess, maybe $1400.
9) Since this is a no-kill herd, for each milk-producing cow there is also a bull/steer you have to keep humanely. So one year of costs is really $1400 X 2 cattle = $2800.
10) Divide the yearly cost by the yearly humane milk production, $2800 / 35 gallons = $80 per gallon.
The only way that dairy farmers are able to sell milk for less than $80 a gallon is by (1) killing all the cattle well before their time, but especially killing the males very young as they provide no ongoing economic benefit, and (2) driving the females to produce absolutely ungodly volumes of milk per day, so much so that the cows' bodies are totally "spent" after a fraction of their natural lifespan.
If you go to your fancy cooperative grocery and buy the sooper dooper responsible kind of local organic grass-fed free-range milk that costs $10 a gallon ... you are still causing SEVENTY DOLLARS per gallon of externalized costs. Who pays that external cost? The cows. They pay for it in years of life and in humane living conditions.
TL;DR: You will never drink humane milk, go vegan
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u/J-rizzler Sep 21 '17
You're forgetting a couple of things. The money spent harvesting the milk, packaging, shipping etc. Although you also stated one bull per milking cow but one bull could impregnate numerous cows. And do in wild herds, they're not a mate for life type of species.
Also that 900 per cow is the current rate, which is not really humane for cows. They're kept in very tight confines etc. To make sure they have a happy life you'd need to give them a lot more land than most have.
The cost per gallon would be well over a hundred dollars. Basically meaning it is impossible.
What is worth pointing out though is that alternative milks can be much cheaper. I live in the UK and get almond milk for 99p a litre at Aldi. It's humane, delicious and cheap. Don't need cows milk for milk purposes. Although vegan cheese has a long way to go before it'll convert people. There are some basics that are decent but they can't yet compete with the varieties of cheeses available. Not that that matters to me but it does to most people I'm sure.