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A comment on The Dizzying Grandeur of 21st Century Agriculture. Parent comment

Re:The Dizzying Grandeur of 21st Century Agriculture by 13of40 on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @08:15PM (#12649111)
They're not actually separated at birth, because if you do that their immune system doesn't get seeded by their mother's milk, and they end up dying of horrible diseases.
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Re:The Dizzying Grandeur of 21st Century Agriculture by subpixel on Thursday October 06, 2016 @12:45PM (#12653914)
Actually they are (within a matter of hours) and the bulk of colostrum a calf gets in its first days comes in frozen form, from other cows.

If a calf is allowed to suckle as nature intended it will learn to like the process (and the milk) and take longer to get onto a dry feed diet. In a commercial operation there's no time for that.

Source: 3 years on a dairy farm.

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