What happens to cows that are in the wild when they need to be milked?

Question

So farmers have to milk their cows...but what about the ones who aren't cared for? (like what if one escapes or something?)

Answer 1

Mammals (including cows) only lactate while pregnant or after giving birth. The milk is intended for the offspring of the mother. Thus, the calves would suckle the milk from their mother.

Humans are mammals, too, so the same applies to women except for the bit about the calves. A good day to you.

Answer 2

cows in the wild dont need to be milked. if you milk a cow then they can't have babies its weird. so cows in the wild have babies and dont get milked

Answer 3

Farmers don't actually have to milk their cows. I grew up on a sheep and cattle property/ranch, and we had thousands of cattle that we never milked. These were beef cattle that would end up being killed for meat, not dairy cattle. We also kept a few milkers in a smaller paddock. They were the same type of cattle as the others, and they can be milked, but don't give as much milk as dairy cattle.

Dairy cows are milked because that is the purpose that people have bred them for and keep them for. Their calves are taken away from them soon after being born, and the cows are milked a couple of times a day for about the next ten months. If the calf was left with the cow, it would drink the milk and the cow would continue to produce milk. When the calf is taken from the cow, the milk will stop being produced unless the cow is milked.

Cows that aren't raised for the purpose of being dairy cows just have their calves out in the paddock, and feed them the milk they produce. That is the true purpose of cow's milk - to be fed to calves, even though I imagine a lot of people might think the purpose is to produce milk for humans. So, if the calf is left with the cow, it will drink the milk, as nature intended. No farmer is needed to milk the cow.

Answer 4

Calves.

Without the milking or suckling stimulus the milk isn't let down and the cow no longer needs to be milked.

Answer 5

There are no cows in the wild. Cattle are strictly domesticated animals. They are extinct in the wild. Bos taurus is the scientific name. Cows are females and bulls are males, same species.