there’s more than shown here and it’s more than just these users too 😭
if you find the thread don’t piss in the popcorn (brigade) but also please maybe don’t bring it back here i don’t want 400 notifications of entry level “is almond milk milk” vegan discourse
The majority of male calves are killed at 18 months for meat (equivalent of about 6 in human age) once they’ve put on enough weight. “Veal” is if they’re killed under 12 months, which is rarer, but adulthood is a couple of years later, and yes, not just many of the calves, almost all of the male ones.
Dairy cows are killed once they’ve been milked for a few years as yields start to fall and become uneconomic. They typically live for six or fewer years, but their natural lifespan would be more than 15.
“Many” isn’t doing a lot of lifting, it’s doing a lot of understatement.
18 months is full weight
Under 12 months is veal, so you were correct that most don’t end up as veal.
But they count as calves until adulthood, which is nearer age 4. They’re normally killed for meat at about 18 months or six in human years. They do continue to put on weight into adulthood, but less rapidly than in the first 18 months, so you get a better return on investment by killing them while they’re still calves, because you’ve saved half your costs but got 3/4 of the weight in meat, and the meat is more tender and marketable.
So not quite full weight, and definitely still killed as a calf, not as an adult.
A 3 year old cow is not a calf.
If you like, but my point is that it’s certainly not an adult. Male calves are almost all killed before adulthood.
Cows are fully mature at around 24 months old, depending on breed.
They do not have an extended developmental period like humans so the comparison to a 6 year old human based on maximum lifespan is fallacious.
Even if your numbers were correct, 18 months, the typical slaughter age of cattle, is before adulthood, and a long way before the natural lifespan of between 15-20 years.
Male cows are killed young for meat. Female cows are killed once they’re less use for milk.
It shouldn’t be surprising to you. It’s just economics. It makes no financial sense to do otherwise.
I don’t see any point in pretending otherwise and I don’t know why you want to.
almost all beef is slaughtered around 18 months, male or female. that’s full weight.
It’s slaughter weight, not full weight. Lots of female cows are kept alive for another few years for milk and calving.