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DairyTalk 658: Culling Is More Than Biology: How Markets, Management, and Farmer Beliefs Shape Decisions - by Helmut Demmelhuber
This podcast episode is based on a scientific study exploring how British dairy farmers make breeding and culling decisions. While fertility, health, and milk production remain important, the research shows that a cow's future in the herd is shaped by a much wider set of influences. Beef prices, milk contracts, farmer attitudes, emotional attachment, and external policies such as bovine tuberculosis control can all change when and why an animal is removed. This challenges a purely biological interpretation of dairy cow longevity: productive life reflects not only genetics and health, but also…
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