Selective sexing for dairy cows?

[silva]

Second day of a new job. Apparently the supervisor raises dairy cows 'cause someone made a joke asking if he got a girl. He goes on about having to have the cow artificially imseminated and was able to select the sex. I've never heard of that, but always wondered why not. I asked him if the sex can be selected why would there be so many male dairy cows?
Has anyone heard of this? Why wouldn't small farms (humane") do that?

 

[Second Summer]

I found this article which seems to explain how it works:
http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s1624149.htm

 

[silva]

That was written in 2006. I guess people really don't give as much as a crap about veal as they so often say they do.
I had to shut up after asking a boss why.

 

[Lord Snot]

AI is expensive, especially when the semen is sexed. Bigger dairies can afford it because it makes their operation more efficient, but for smaller farmers it's false economy. Cheaper to just fatten the bull calves up on milk substitute and cereal and then ship them to Europe for cheap veal when they're 4/6 months old.

Other places want to use a real bull because they are looking for specific traits or appearance in the herd, especially pedigree farms or those who have show cattle. You can buy semen from bulls with certain traits but, again, it's more expensive.

 

[Blobbenstein]

maybe there could be a label for dairy products that come from dairies that use this method of sex selection.....a 'Veal Free Dairy' label.