Are English dairy cows fed a lot of hormones that could end up in their milk?

[Trowbridge10]

I'm just reading about additional hormones coming through to us from the meat & milk we consume. Do you think this is really happening & can it affect our health?

I'm not sure that happens in the British dairy industry as its regulated.

In America I believe cattle can be fed growth hormones (testosterone, estrogen).

I don't think anyone knows how the addition of these hormones affects humans.

However a wide variety of foods and chemicals have estogrenic effects (increasing or decreasing the level of estrogen in the body).

The best advice is to eat a balanced healthy diet with plenty of fruit, veg, fibre etc.

I think this is why one might prefer to eat certified organic produce.
Certainly now we don't come under EU regulations we might see poorer meat flooding our market with no legislation for labelling, etc.

I looked into this twenty years ago and at that point it was US cattle that were routinely dosed with hormones.

I'd Google if I were you.

I remember being careful in the US as they have less restrictions on antibiotics and the use of growth hormones.
It’s a worry for the future here due to Brexit.

They are not fed hormones here but there will be naturally occurring hormones in the milk.

I’ve had breast cancer (very hormone driven) so spent lots of time trying to find any conclusions about hormones in milk and impact on our endocrine systems. It was all pretty inconclusive. I did stop drinking milk for a while. I’m more relaxed now and drink organic milk in coffee.

Not in the UK

I think that in the UK they are given something which vastly increases their milk yield - which must make for painfully full udders at the least.

I used to insure cows
One insurance you can get is 'antibiotics in milk' cover. If the presence of antibiotics is found, then the whole tank has to be discarded. It can be discarded by spraying it on fields, there was a claim once where this then ran off into a river and had to have an Environmental clean up as the milk killed the fish.
Fascinating stuff

Breast milk is inherently full of hormones to help the baby grow, cow breast milk is no different except for the balance of components being designed for a calf’s needs whereas obviously human breast milk adapts to the baby’s needs. You can’t add artificial bovine growth hormone to milk in the EU but it contains it naturally. I believe most dairy cattle are milked whilst pregnant which would lead to higher amounts of natural hormones in the milk as well.

My view is - why drink the milk of another animal? Humans are the only species which do it. It would be weird if I was drinking human breast milk as an adult because I don’t need it. We don’t need to consume animal milk either and I don’t see how growth hormones can be doing us any good even if they’re naturally present in the milk. I haven’t drunk milk since I was an infant and no, I’ve never been deficient in calcium.

No

The short answer is no. No external hormones are fed or given to cows in the UK.

The only hormones used are short acting reproductive hormones if there is an issue with the cows reproductive performance eg. A cyst on an ovary

@crumpet that's not true

This does not differ with organic or non-organic milk in the UK.

Other countries rules and regulations may not be the same.

I'm not in the UK but where I am we get most food from USA (with exception of some Tesco/Waitrose products).

I've taken my kids off dairy almost entirely because cow's milk is for baby cows, not for humans, even if it's organic and hasn't got hormones.

Not in the UK

I've stopped buying milk and switched to soya milk The dairy cow have the worst life ever people just don't realise

@Skyla2005

I've stopped buying milk and switched to soya milk The dairy cow have the worst life ever people just don't realise

They don't

Not in the UK. I come from a family of dairy farmers and the milk is tested for antibiotics etc as well and will not be used if it is found to contain any. In the US it is different. But they have poor welfare standards overall.

My view is - why drink the milk of another animal? Humans are the only species which do it

Why not? Humans are the only species to do most things, thats not any kind of argument for not doing things.
Also, cheese.

@Skyla2005

I've stopped buying milk and switched to soya milk The dairy cow have the worst life ever people just don't realise

Any expansion on this?

@Skyla2005, but soy is so bad for deforestation too, and monoculture- how about oat milk instead?

Isn't it unutterably cruel to impregnate a cow and take her young calf away, and use a machine to take away the milk intended for that calf?

My view is - why drink the milk of another animal? Humans are the only species which do it
Humans are also the only species who cook their food, wear clothes and live in houses. Shall we stop doing that too?

@CommunistLegoBloc

Isn't it unutterably cruel to impregnate a cow and take her young calf away, and use a machine to take away the milk intended for that calf?

They're not human. They quickly forget the calf.

derxa I’m not vegan or anything but how do you know? I would be very surprised as they are remarkably intelligent and Obviously can’t speak.

We love milk but a nutrition book I have does mention it contains growth hormones as intended for a growing calf. I see it as more useful for our DC than adults but Dh disagrees as loves drinking it!

@derxa how do you know? And even if they 'quickly forget', you're repeatedly putting them through the same horrible experience. Doesn't that seem cruel?

I briefly lived next door to a dairy farm. I stopped drinking dairy and switched to oat/soy after being kept awake several nights by distressed cows calling for the calves that had been removed from them. I was told "it's fine, they get over it within a couple of days"

Not even the worst of the worst criminal has ever been sentenced a punishment half as cruel, as how the billions and billions of non-human animals in the 'animal agriculture' are (supposedly) treated so humanely and well.
We even have the audacity to talk about 'high standards' and 'good animal welfare' while we remove offspring and slit their throats.