local small dairy

We went to a smallish-medium sized local dairy for my soil science lab (looking at manure production). It was much better than the huge, super crowded feedlots, but still sad to me. They did not graze, they were inside. The poor baby calves were taken from their mothers for veal and the moms had engorged breasts--not for feeding their babies. So sad! Having been so involved in breastfeeding promotion, it seems so wrong--the mother cows are instinctually mothers just like us women, they want to nourish their children. Their breasts look so much like ours.

Maybe you could own one cow and skim a little milk off the side after the baby drinks, that wouldn't be cruel. But then, why not just breastfeed your children longer (instead of weaning so early), that milk has exactly what humans need (not to create a falso dicotomy). Many societies breastfeed until five, six, seven...it's hard to me to grasp (cultural conditioning), but I can't think of any actual logical reason why this is wrong. Two to three years is obviously a minimum, but there's actually a lot of scientific evidence that this is not necessarily long enough---looking at age of weaning of other mammals (to half-way of reproductive maturity or 1/3 of adult bodyweight), immune system capacity, etc. I guess that's why the best advice is--do it as long as you both want to.