does that mean they're always pregnant or with calf,im having a moral dilemma about drinking milk.
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No. Cows are not always lactating (or "with milk") nor are they always pregnant. A cow always gets a two to three month break from having to lactate and/or pregnancy.
Cows lactate when they give birth to a calf. They are left open (or unbred) for two to three months to let the uterus get back to normal, then bred via artificial insemination. They are still lactating throughout this period. When they are two months away from their expected due date, they are dried up (not milked) to rest before calving. They calve, and the cycle starts over again.
The only "bad" thing about dairy farming is that the calves are often taken away from their dams a day or two after birth (for some farms, its sooner, others much later). But not to fear, they are still well-cared for, being fed, watered, given a comfy bed of straw to lay on, and milk replacer fed to them twice or thrice a day, depending on their age. Dairy bull calves have to be sold to slaughter because there's nothing that a dairy farmer (or any other farmer, really) can use them for--bottle-fed bulls are the most dangerous animal found on a farm. Bull calves that "escape" being turned into veal are raised along with beef cattle in a backgrounding/feedlot to be slaughtered for beef.
Cows that are old, sick, injured, or otherwise unfit to be in the cow herd need to be culled out of the herd. Again, like the bull calves, there's often no other use for them other than for beef. Some dairy cows that have had mastitis destroy one or two quarters get another chance by being rescued by a small farmer from an auction to be used as a family milk cow for the rest of her life.
It's a fact of farm life, an unfortunate one at that, but there's no other way around it, no matter what you try to think of.
Cows lactate when they give birth to a calf. They are left open (or unbred) for two to three months to let the uterus get back to normal, then bred via artificial insemination. They are still lactating throughout this period. When they are two months away from their expected due date, they are dried up (not milked) to rest before calving. They calve, and the cycle starts over again.
The only "bad" thing about dairy farming is that the calves are often taken away from their dams a day or two after birth (for some farms, its sooner, others much later). But not to fear, they are still well-cared for, being fed, watered, given a comfy bed of straw to lay on, and milk replacer fed to them twice or thrice a day, depending on their age. Dairy bull calves have to be sold to slaughter because there's nothing that a dairy farmer (or any other farmer, really) can use them for--bottle-fed bulls are the most dangerous animal found on a farm. Bull calves that "escape" being turned into veal are raised along with beef cattle in a backgrounding/feedlot to be slaughtered for beef.
Cows that are old, sick, injured, or otherwise unfit to be in the cow herd need to be culled out of the herd. Again, like the bull calves, there's often no other use for them other than for beef. Some dairy cows that have had mastitis destroy one or two quarters get another chance by being rescued by a small farmer from an auction to be used as a family milk cow for the rest of her life.
It's a fact of farm life, an unfortunate one at that, but there's no other way around it, no matter what you try to think of.