Sorta:

Basically, once a cow gets pregnant and it produces milk, you can keep it going by never weaning the cow off. If you miss milking it, it *does* hurt (and so does weaning, I imagine).

It's just... I don't know, I grew up on a farm, and while it was small production (just for personal use), we were always good to our animals. THEY were the ones that were really annoying at times. *vague mutterings about escape-cows*