Is the dairy industries cruelty effecting your health?

If you’re like me, you might assume that all milk is created equally, but like with all things, once I looked a little closer, I quickly began to understand that there’s some pretty shady aspects of the dairy industry.

I personally want to know where my food comes from and understand what practices my money is supporting when I shop.

Dairy farming is one of Australia’s most important rural farming industries, producing about 8.8 billion litres of milk per year and generating $6.1 billion dollars in 2023. It creates a lot of jobs too in regional parts of the country too.

But have you ever stopped to consider how so much milk can be produced?

For most mammals, you need to have had a baby to produce milk and cows are no different. To ensure the high volumes of steady milk produced by dairy cows, they are kept in an almost perpetual state of pregnancy, usually by artificial insemination.

When the cow – known as a dam – gives birth, the calf is removed from its mother almost immediately. The dam will lactate and the milk will be used for sale for human consumption after it’s pasteurised.

Pasteurised just means it’s been heat treated to remove potential pathogens from the milk and it’s illegal to sell milk in Australia that hasn’t undergone this process.

Now you might be wondering, where does the calf go?

This is where it gets sad.

If the calf is born female, it will be taken away and raised separately from the mother and will be used for future breeding and dairy production. Once the cows milk begins to reduce after about three years, the cow is no longer profitable and slaughtered for meat.

If the calf is born male – referred to as a bobby calf – it’ll most likely be destroyed shortly after it’s born. They’re considered waste by products in the dairy industry.

As a mother, none of this feels right to me.

I get it, the cost of living right now is ridiculous and why would you choose to pay $8 for 2 litres of milk when you can get 3 litres of milk from woolies for half the price?

That said, I do want to be fair to the big chains and found this statement about the Woolworths brand milk.

Where you spend your money matters and ethical farming is not a pipe dream that’s not possible. It’s happening overseas already.

It is possible to use milk from a lactating cow whilst it stays with its calf. Brands like “how now” “the big little dairy co” and “mother cow diary” are all doing it now.

Dairy cows are subjected to a short, often painful life, in unnatural conditions and fed foods to fatten them up, and grazed on land that has been repeatedly sprayed with pesticides that actually aren’t great for us and lessen the nutrient value of the milk.

Buying organic can also be important to choosing your milk, as the producers are held to account by a certification board, where the whole eco system has to be considered. That’s not to say that bobby calves can’t be removed from their mothers and sold for meat under this certification, but they have to be older before being allowed to transport.

I personally like Schulz diary or barambah for their organic milk, as they also don’t homogenise their milk and you still get that cream on the top.

Overall, it’s a decision I’ve made to vote with my wallet on this one and buy mother with calf milk if available or organic if I can’t find that.

The more we demand change and educate ourselves on where our food comes from, the kinder the world can become for all beings.

You can visit ethical.org.au to find out which Australian milk companies are rated most highly and get additional information about a whole heap of how they operate.

I’ll leave tags to the brands I’ve mentioned below and hopefully some of you will go and give them a try. If you have an ethical brand that you love, leave it in the comments below!

I’ve been quite a lot of research into dairy milk lately and as a mum of two young kids and a nutritionist, it’s so important I get the best quality available to me.

Here are six things you should know when deciding to buy milk:

1. Dairy farming is one of Australia’s biggest rural industries. It produces on average 8.8 billion litres of milk per year, generating $6.1 billion dollars in 2023 alone. It also creates tens of thousands of regional jobs all over the country.

2. Known as “conventional dairy farming” dairy cows are kept in an almost perpetual state of pregnancy and often separated from their calves immediately after giving birth.

3. Calves born female are kept and raised separately from their mother to be used for future dairy production and male calves are commonly sent to slaughter shortly after birth. They’re considered a waste by product of the industry.

4. The average life span of a dairy cow is 3 years. Once they’re no longer profitable, they will be often slaughtered for meat and hide.

5. Conventional dairy farming means that cows are often fed diets of grain, antibiotics to avoid infections and prone to distress in their living conditions. This diminishes the quality and nutritional value of the milk and has a huge impact on the environment.

6. All milk in Australia also has to undergo a process known as pasteurisation, where the milk is heat treated to destroy any pathogens in the milk – it also destroys a lot of nutrients along the way.

That’s a lot to digest – pun intended.

Stay tuned for my next video to find out what are some ethical companies operating in Australia and how we can make better choices.

Last video I outlined some of the things I discovered about the dairy industry and that prompted me to want to find out how I can do better both as a consumer and as a human being.

I believe if there are better options available, then I should be doing everything within my means to utilise them.

Here are my top four picks for more ethical dairy milk:

How now Dairy

This company believes in keeping mother and calf together and sharing the milk. It means smaller batches are created and minimises the distress on the cows. Male calves are raised on their farm or sold to other farms to be cared for. They also have an initiative where you can find certain retailers that offer glass bottle refills, which reduces carbon footprint even further. How now also offer organic, grass fed milk that is unhomogenised. Their milk has slight price variations depending on whether it’s organic, refilled etc, but it’s around $7 for 2L

Barambah Organics

These guys are Australian owned and certified organic, meaning no pesticides or fertilisers are sprayed on the grass the cows graze on. It’s not exactly clear how long they keep calves with their mothers, but their website does stimulate that they individually assess each calf before deciding when to remove the calf from its mother. The milk is priced around $8 for 2L.

Made by cow dairy

These guys are using a cold pressure technology to pasteurise their milk – meaning it retains most of the original nutrients and flavour. They promote it as being as close to raw as possible. The cows are grass fed and free range. I couldn’t find any info on their website was regarding their treatment of mother and calf. Overall, this one offers a lot of benefits. I also found it priced for $7.95 for 1.5 L.

Schulz organic

Again, they don’t homogenise their milk and heat pasturise at the lowest possible temperature to try to retain as much nutrition as possible. They promote using organic and regenerative farming practices, meaning there’s no harmful chemicals being consumed by the cows. They have also created an initiative to bring back glass bottles, which is cool. Again, I couldn’t find much information about their mother and calf practices, but their ethics seem to indicate they try to do best by the animals. It’ll cost about $7 for 2L of milk.

another honourable mention is mother cow dairy… but I have yet to taste their milk and it’s very difficult to find in stores.

For more info and where buy these products, I’ll leave their handles in the comments below.

Leave a like or comment if you learned something!