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What Happens to Dairy Bull Calves?

Krista Stauffer

I often receive questions about bull calves that are born on our farm.

Do you have bull calves or do you artificially inseminate to only have heifers? So what do dairy farmers do with their bull calves? Do bull calves get the same treatment? What does our dairy farm do with the bull calves on our farm? All are great questions.

Question: Do you have bull calves or do you artificially inseminate to only have heifers?

Answer: We use bulls to breed our dairy cattle. We breed all our heifers and cows to jersey bulls. Because we use bulls there is no guarantee if a heifer or bull will be born.

Question: So what do dairy farmers do with their bull calves and what do we do on our farm?

Answer: To be honest, each farm is different. Some farms raise their own bull calves, some send them to the sale barn and some have arrangements with a certain person/farm to purchase them. That depends on the farm. On our farm, we sell them and they are raised as steers then sold at the sale barn. The same family comes to the farm, picks up the bull calf anywhere from day one to a week old and takes it to their farm to raise. They raise them pretty much the same way we raise our heifer (female) calves.

Question: Do bull calves get the same treatment? (I am assuming this was referring to being the treated as our heifers)

Answer: On our farm every calf is born, cleaned off by its mother (in some cases the mother doesn’t want anything to do with it) and is taken to our calf barn. There are times during the winter that we remove the calf immediately due to below freezing temperatures. Every calf regardless if it is a heifer or bull gets their colostrum from it’s mother.

If you would like to read more about our heifer program (how we raise our calves) and why they are taken away from their mothers, please check out this blog post. If you would like to read about how special the mother of the bull calf pictured above is to me, click here. If you have questions or concerns about veal, read these statistics or this interview with an actual veal farmer.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to comment below. Or you can contact me, here.

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Krista Stauffer

Owner at Stauffer Dairy
Krista didn't grow up on a farm but fell in love with a dairy farmer and now works alongside her husband on their family dairy farm, raising five children. Despite her non-farm upbringing, she embraces farm life, enjoys gardening, and remodeling their farmhouse. She also runs a successful women's boutique, manages social media for local businesses, and serves on the board of a non-profit creamery, showcasing her dedication to entrepreneurship and community service.
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