Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 16
1 A. Well, that is the dairy beef side which I have been
2 concentrating on. I can -- what I will answer your
3 question now is if I just do the sum, the cow has started
4 into this reproductive cycle just over the age of two. If
5 she had got to her fourth lactation she would have been six
6 years old. Well, the average cow does not reach that age.
7 So, she is probably culled at the age of five or six,
8 sometimes younger, because in very intensive systems she is
9 worn out -- the wear and tear, as the farmers say, gets
10 her.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause there a moment. When you say in
13 "a typical dairy beef herd", if I see them on a lowland
14 farm and meadow with a lot of, I was going to say
15 Friesians, but I had better just call them black and white
16 cows in them, because they may well not be Friesians, would
17 that be likely to be a typical dairy beef herd by your
18 definition or a suckler herd?
19 A. Yes. Generally speaking, particularly in areas like
20 the southwest, you would see cattle in the dairy beef
21 system. If you went to Scotland and you saw Aberdeen
22 Angus, black animals -----
23
24 Q. I understand the beef herd, but what is the suckler herd
25 then?
26 A. Well, the suckler herd is the fact that the calf runs
27 with its dam for eight or nine months, and so the calf has
28 the milk and it is not in competition with human sucklers,
29 if you like.
30
31 Q. I just wanted to know your definition, that is all.
32 A. I should just say that I have told you about single
33 suckle, that is. Now, sometimes, as with most female
34 animals, you can get more milk out if you sustain it and
35 sometimes a farmer will suckle or will get another calf, by
36 another calf ------
37
38 Q. Do not be taken off that. I just wanted to know what your
39 terms meant.
40 A. So -----
41
42 Q. You have got the typical dairy beef herd, an average
43 culling age at about five which would, in fact, be before
44 the fourth lactation?
45 A. Yes. Could I just amplify that? The output from a
46 modern British dairy cow is about 5,500 litres a year.
47 That is about twice what it was just after World War II and
48 twice, for instance, what it would be from a cow in other
49 parts of the European Union. At the Royal Smithfield show
50 last December, there were cows there yielding over 10,000
51 litres of milk a year, that is 10,000 kilogrammes. Now,
52 the weight of that milk is such that the udder is so
53 engorged, they have to be milked three times a day.
54
55 MS. STEEL: Are there any welfare implications about the
56 increased amount of milk that they are producing?
57 A. Yes, because there are a lot of welfare indications
58 because these cows, you see, are consuming, if you like,
59 calories at the rate of about, one cow consuming calories
60 at the rate of about 25 people. So, their metabolism -- 25
