This is really interesting. Do you think that the fact cows are separated from their child, and arguably really don’t like that, would change significantly the results?
Thanks for another relevant question too! I do not think that alone would make dairy production net negative:
According to CIWF, “Dairy cows must give birth to one calf per year in order to continue producing milk”.
From Animal Australia, “both mother and calf can often be heard calling out for each other for hours [after they are separated]”.
Assuming disabling pain of 3 h/year for each the mother and child based on the above, one gets 6 h/year (= 2*3) of disabling pain. For my intensity of disabling pain, that corresponds to a loss of 0.00684 AQALY/year (= 6/24/365.25*10).
The above is quite small in comparison with the magnitude of the values I got for chickens and shrimp. So, in the absence of longer term effects from the separation, I do not think it would bring dairy production from positive to negative.
Thanks for the answer !
This is really interesting. Do you think that the fact cows are separated from their child, and arguably really don’t like that, would change significantly the results?
Thanks for another relevant question too! I do not think that alone would make dairy production net negative:
According to CIWF, “Dairy cows must give birth to one calf per year in order to continue producing milk”.
From Animal Australia, “both mother and calf can often be heard calling out for each other for hours [after they are separated]”.
Assuming disabling pain of 3 h/year for each the mother and child based on the above, one gets 6 h/year (= 2*3) of disabling pain. For my intensity of disabling pain, that corresponds to a loss of 0.00684 AQALY/year (= 6/24/365.25*10).
The above is quite small in comparison with the magnitude of the values I got for chickens and shrimp. So, in the absence of longer term effects from the separation, I do not think it would bring dairy production from positive to negative.
Thanks for the answer ! I wish more people thought about these questions.