Milk

Pros

• No electric goads should be used. Otherwise, basically just the bare legal minimum.

Cons

• 95% of UK milk is Red Tractor approved, and it is impossible to know whether the cows were ever on pasture or spent their whole lives inside a stinking factory farm.
• Calves are taken from their mothers. They may be kept isolated in hutches (although they should be able to see and touch their neighbours) and reared for the veal trade.
• If male and not profitable, calves may be killed at birth.
• Dairy cows can be transported to slaughter when they are heavily pregnant — at up to eight months into their nine-month pregnancy.
• Journey times of more than 8 hours are permitted.
• Mutilations are permitted.
• Significant environmental impacts in terms of pollution, land use, and climate. Lower environmental compliance on Red Tractor dairy farms than on non-Red Tractor farms.
• Workers have been filmed punching, beating, and kicking animals at two separate Red Tractor dairy farms.

Pros

• Cows have access to pasture for at least four hours a day for 120 days a year.
• They are afforded a bit more space indoors and clean bedding.
• Pain relief must be provided when lame — a common problem on dairy farms.
• No routine antibiotic use.

Cons

• Cows can still be slaughtered up until their seventh month of pregnancy.
• Calves are taken from their mothers and can be kept in hutches alone (although they must be able to see and touch their neighbours).
• Unwanted male calves can still be slaughtered at birth.
• Bulls used for breeding may be kept on their own, even though they are social animals.
• Painful mutilations are permitted.
• A 2018 investigation revealed distressed cows, violence to calves, and workers forcing feeding tubes down young animals' throats.
• Significant environmental impacts in terms of pollution, land use, and climate.

Pros

• Zero-grazing is banned and cows must have access to pasture on average for 200 days a year.
• Calves cannot be kept alone in hutches after the age of 7 days.
• Animals afforded a bit more space indoors and should have adequate, clean bedding.
• No routine antibiotic use.

Cons

• Calves are separated from their mothers and unwanted male calves can still be slaughtered at birth.
• Animals can be sold through livestock markets, which is stressful.
• Transportation times of over 8 hours permitted.
• Cows who are up to six months pregnant can still be transported.
• Pregnant cows can be slaughtered.
• A 2018 investigation revealed distressed cows, violence to calves, and workers forcing feeding tubes down young animals' throats.
• A 2021 investigation into an organic dairy found a worker slapping, punching, and kicking cows, as well as hitting their udders with plastic pipes.
• Significant environmental impacts in terms of pollution, land use, and climate.

Pros

• Some goats are reared outside but brought indoors over winter and / or when poor weather dictates, but it’s not possible to know from the label.

Cons

• Almost all goats farmed in the UK are kept in zero-grazing factory farm conditions.
• Kids are taken from their mothers and either killed at birth, raised to replace their mothers, or slaughtered for meat.
• A 2022 investigation at Delamere Dairy found many lame animals, filthy pens, a lack of meaningful enrichment, kids killed on the farm, and verbal and physical abuse towards the animals.

Pros

• Some sheep are reared outside and brought indoors over winter and / or when poor weather dictates, but it’s not possible to know from the label.

Cons

• Sheep may be kept in zero-grazing factory farms.
• Lambs taken from their mothers when they are young and raised to replace their mothers or slaughtered for meat.
• Due to conditions, mastitis and lameness are common, while pneumonia is “prevalent in both lambs and mature ewes”.

Pros

• No factory farming, forced impregnation, antibiotics, somatic cells (white blood cells present in dairy milk due to udder infections), transportation, mutilations, or slaughter.
• Lower environmental footprint that milk from animals in terms of land use, greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, and pollution.

Cons

None.