Male cattle were castrated and used as draught animals ("oxen") in many European societies. Either way, dairy cattle and draught cattle would get butchered and

Male cattle were castrated and used as draught animals ("oxen") in many European societies. Either way, dairy cattle and draught cattle would get butchered and eaten at end of useful life, unless they died of disease. And there was also plenty of cattle raised for food in the areas that had the land for it.