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?

@CommunistLegoBloc what do you propose is done with the land that sheep and cattle graze then? Much of Britain’s land isn’t suitable for arable farming, huge swathes of grade 4 and 5 land.

If you plough it up you’ll be releasing carbon and encouraging soil erosion. Nutrients will just leach from the ground. The manure and slurry from livestock is very important to arable and fresh produce farming too. Although human waste is used as a fertiliser if you get rid of cattle waste, chemical fertilisers will be needed.

Livestock are also vital for modern farming methods and things like rewilding. They churn up ground and help to restore nutrients by using forage as a break crop. This is invaluable to reducing NPK inputs and kills of pests for reduced fertiliser usage. Farming of all sorts is completely interlinked. Which is why we need agriculture taught in schools.

Yeah fine. Doesn't mean that it isn't cruel to cows though, does it 🤷

Livestock are also vital for modern farming methods and things like rewilding. They churn up ground and help to restore nutrients by using forage as a break crop. This is invaluable to reducing NPK inputs and kills of pests for reduced fertiliser usage. Farming of all sorts is completely interlinked. Which is why we need agriculture taught in schools

Anyone who isn't a farmer doesn't need to know the ins and outs. It doesn't need to be in schools. Teach them what an egg is and how to cook it, for a start, leave the rest alone.

Surely a few lessons in geography on how agriculture works, how it fits into climate change and how the food you eat is more important. It’s more relevant to people than learning about magma or tectonic plates.

Just like any other mammal some cows are very maternal, others not so much.

Modern Holstein cows produce far more milk than they naturally would. They also (mostly) lead shortened lives and in lots of cases do not get to live in a natural way. Some don't get to graze for example.

There are alternatives to this. Smaller farms, less intensive production, smaller yields, forage as the diet.

Realistically it's to do with price or greed whichever way you want to play it.

There are however NO hormones in British milk.

Surely a few lessons in geography on how agriculture works, how it fits into climate change and how the food you eat is more important. It’s more relevant to people than learning about magma or tectonic plates

They already do that. Hardly the same as introducing agriculture as a subject in the curriculum. School isn't meant to or capable of teaching children everything in the world they should know about. Parents need to do that.

what do you propose is done with the land that sheep and cattle graze then?

Why do you need to DO something with it? Let it lie fallow. Allow wildlife to take over.

Wildlife doesn't have to take over because it already co-exists with the grazing stock

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/woolbeding-countryside/features/conservation-grazing

@Mrbob

what do you propose is done with the land that sheep and cattle graze then?

Why do you need to DO something with it? Let it lie fallow. Allow wildlife to take over.

Agree Mrbob

Isn't it rather an elitist attitude? Smaller yields, less intensive methods, smaller farms....all that adds up to far more expensive dairy and meat products. Which is all very well for the middle class organic farm shop consumers and their vegan days, but not very useful for those who can barely afford food as it is. Of which numbers are ever rising.

I'm not willing to have happier cows at the expense of hungry children.

@Mrbob because grazing increases biodiversity and improves soils quality. If it was just left you’d be destroying very important habitats as many species would be outcompeted.

@Mrbob

what do you propose is done with the land that sheep and cattle graze then?

Why do you need to DO something with it? Let it lie fallow. Allow wildlife to take over.

If you just abandon farmland you'll get a hopeless mess.

And if you abandon U.K. farmland, it will just mean importing more food from elsewhere. That's just a weird form of nimbyism.

Boltfromtheblue How is it we manage to feed 60 billion farm animals but not 690 billion people? (8.9% globally)

Ironically many of these countries sell their grain to the west so we can feed it to animals. There is your elitism.

I dont buy supermarket milk for that reason. I go to markets and buy raw organic milk that hasn't had all the enzymes burnt out and isn't pumped full of hormones. If I can't buy that milk then I'll drink oat milk.

I'd rather drink supermarket milk though than soy which is full of estrogen and can seriously mess up your hormones

Buy the best you can afford.

As I live in Cornwall I have a choice of local farm dairies to buy milk from. It is 80p a pint, so nearly double the price in Tesco, but the welfare standards are very good and the milk is so delicious and thick and creamy.

Not in the UK. If you do decide to switch for whatever reason (not for me, cheese is too nice) please don’t switch to soy milk.

How is it we manage to feed 60 billion farm animals but not 690 billion people?

That's not a serious question is it?

Grass helps.

@Mrbob

what do you propose is done with the land that sheep and cattle graze then?

Why do you need to DO something with it? Let it lie fallow. Allow wildlife to take over.

We are - unfortunately - a small and over crowded island, and getting ever more so.

If anybody doesn't appreciate that. they should.compare our land mass relative to our population, compared to that of other similar sized European countries.

Our land has a high value because it is limited, and needs to work to support us and feed us, especially in today's world. Hence also high house prices. It is what it is. ☹️🤷‍♀️

.

Waitrose boasts that their dairy cows are outside for 3 months of the year. The other 9 months are spent under cover, eating processed food.
Then there are super dairies, buildings housing thousands of cows which never set foot in a field or eat a blade of grass. Their lives are short, constantly being impregnated, giving birth, having their calves removed almost immediately and producing huge quantities of milk. They suffer from mastitis repeatedly. Did you even know that factory farming includes cows?
Humans don’t need milk once they’re weaned.

Yes of course they are and steroids !!

@kylie122 don’t talk such rubbish. They are illegal to use in the U.K. and EU.

The other 9 months are spent under cover, eating processed food. Do you know what silage is? There is no grass during late autumn and early spring. Not here in Scotland. Imagine you were a dairy cow. Would you rather be out in the cold and wet weather or in a purpose built dry shed with mats to lie on and food and water on tap?

As someone who was a passenger many times on a livestock export lorries with calves on it shipping back and forth from Harwich to Holland I can say that the dairy industry is one of the cruelest industries there is. Don't kid yourself with all this crap about the cows don't miss their calves. The calves absolutely miss their mothers and cry pitilessly for them for days and days. They get handled roughly into lorries and go long periods of time without food, water and the space to rest whilst being transported . It's a hideous business and is a by product of dairy. So your milk maybe organic or from a local family farm but you are still contributing to the suffering of the calves that are unwanted in dairy farms.