Male calves are being killed because it’s cheaper than rearing them
Farmers are under pressure to keep costs down
According to a Guardian investigation, a lack of demand for male calves means farmers can't afford to keep them.
What it means: Female calves are needed for milking, but when male calves are born it's cheaper for a farmer to send them to slaughter, rather than sell them on.
According to the Guardian, the latest figures show that more than 90,000 calves were slaughtered. It's still only about 19 per cent of male calves born, but as dairy farmers come under pressure to keep costs down, the number of male calves being slaughtered at birth is rising.
Farmers have been caught in the middle of a 'supermarket
war', as stores try and compete for who can offer customers the lowest price for a pint of milk. It means milk is often sold for cheaper than water, and as dairy farmers are forced to lower prices to accommodate it one in 10 have gone out of business in the past 10 years.
… most of us live in a home of friends, family, or with a partner. Our homes are like mini-economies, with their own systems of dividing up work, providing resources, and exchanging skill-sets. Not only do these affect our ideas of who does what on a wider scale, our homes themselves and where they’re located have an effect on the economy around us, and the economy we experience.
