veal

domsmith · Post by **domsmith** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:25 pm

We slaughter at 8 months, which is much older than most people think, but this give us the same carcass weights as the continentals get with there milk fed calves at 4-6months.

they ar killed in the same race etc as any cattle. is that what you meant?
We recently lost 2 whole carcases, put in a skip by the ministry vet, because they were not anti mortem inspected. the lairage man had walked them through the killing race, they were killed, stamped and put in the chill before the vet realised she had not ticked the box.
The abattoir have admitted liability, but i cannot express how upset i was that 2 of my boys had ended up in a skip. 8 months work and 2 live wasted.

the calves on the f word were milk fed for the full 5 months they had up to 4kg of milk powder per day, and it was imported specially from holland, as we dont have anything with enough milk in here.
they drank over 300kg of milk powder each at 1600 £/per ton, expensive veal!!

dom

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 7:22 pm

Opening this old topic, I have an exceptionally large, well finished 12 months old that was weaned 4 weeks ago. Would he make good veal or would it be tender beef? Any ideas because I'm thinking of trying in 2 weeks time. He hasn't gone backwards since weaning and has been on white clover/high sugar grass leys.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1223835865

Liz D · Post by **Liz D** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:13 pm

Clive when we slaughtered a 12 month old (just to see what the taste would be) we found the meat to be very tender but quite flavourless. We do veal at 16 weeks or a little less and grass fed beef who are over 24 months and these two age groups are our favourites. Liz

Saffy · Post by **Saffy** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:17 pm

It is a rather difficult question Clive!

Slightly off topic but on a similar line in a way - there were a number of us for lunch today and so I cooked both a shoulder of lamb that was killed at 4 months old and a shoulder that would be classified as mutton, as it was killed at a year and 4 months old, they were Greyface Dartmoor and full brothers. To my surprise none of us could tell the difference in either taste or texture, quite disappointing in a way.

Stephanie

Louisa Gidney · Post by **Louisa Gidney** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:05 pm

I've just put in the freezer an entire male born 2/1/08. The butcher was surprised at how well he dressed out, carcase c. 120kgs. The meat looks like beef rather than veal. Haven't tasted any of this one yet but from ones I have done in the past, I would expect tender but bland. Due to a fodder, lack of, crisis, I'm intending to winter a lot of young stock in the freezer on a stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap basis.

domsmith · Post by **domsmith** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:37 pm

thats interesting, 120kg at 10 months. we only get 140kgs at 8-9 months off ayrshires heavily fed cake.

dexters would be more economical! but i think as you say they might be blander than the good stuff at 24 months

dom

Saffy · Post by **Saffy** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:38 am

The steer we did in July at 15 months isn't at all bland, a really good flavour, it compares favourably to the Dexter we beef we had before which was bought in as beef and 22 months old.

Stephanie

P.S. He was grass fed and there wasn't too much fat on him but enough for him to grade really well.

Edited By Saffy on 1223887361

Liz D · Post by **Liz D** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:03 pm

Well this is probably a little off topic but we have 'vealed' one dexter, usually we do dairy bull calves, and I was really impressed by the percentage weight gain of the Dexter to the black and white. The dexter was born about the third of the weight of most of the dairy calves we get, off dam and pasture at 13 weeks, he dressed 1/2 the weight of a dairy calf given all the whole milk he can drink and access to grass and/or hay killed out at 15 - 16 weeks! (Dexter birth weight 35lbs, carcass weight 12.5 weeks 121lbs; Holstein birth weight 110lbs, carcass weight 205lbs 15.5 weeks) Liz (from a generation of Canadians who unfortunately is stuck between imperial and metric systems!

)

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:51 pm

Looking at this yearling, he must be 3/4 of the way there so I'll be taking him on on for another 12-16 months for probably not a huge extra gain in weight. I haven't made my mind up what to do yet, but I know he'll produce a good quantity and everyone seems to say it will be tender, but the thought of blandness is a bit off-putting.

Margaret supplied data for heights at various ages and I converted that into a height prediction table....So has anyone got weight stats at various ages (preferably for steers of fatstock heifers, but anything would do)? Grass-fed if possible.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1223909544

Rebecca · Post by **Rebecca** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 5:41 am

Hi Clive

Never done veal, but do for beef from 18 months, if demand is high and I don't have anything closer to 24 months. At 18 months ours have all tasted like "Dexter" except for our only crossbred calf - from a hereford cow (dexter bull). I like hereford (or remember enjoying before we got the Dexters), so thought the cross would be good - but he was tougher (at 17 months) and lacked flavour.

I think the Dexter has spoilt us.

We ran out a few months ago and after buying supermarket beef twice ended up just eating the lamb (ours - Damara) until we had a beast ready to go.

Louisa Gidney · Post by **Louisa Gidney** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 10:00 am

Broomcroft, I think the bland is in comparison to c. 30month Dexter hung for 3 weeks, not commercial beef which I find stringy and tasteless on the rare occasions when I have to eat it to be polite.
I whole heartedly agree with the lack of economic benefit of overwintering if a beast looks pretty fit now.

Louisa Gidney · Post by **Louisa Gidney** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:58 am

First feedback on this baby beef "the meat was great" suggests it's not eating too badly.

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:04 pm

You don't see veal here in NZ much anymore. The bull calves are sold at 4 days old and then reared through to weaning by some people. Sold again to others, who rear them as steers for the beef market or as bull beef for the American burger trade. There aren't many calves left over from this system.

Still other weaned calves are sold to LifeStyle Block owners who buy a couple of calves to grow for their freezer. We still have the luxury of growing them until they are over 3 years old and the flavour is better.

I find there isn't enough flavour in veal, for my tastes. I also like mutton better than lamb. We've got a couple of hoggets that I'm looking forward to trying, once we've got a bit of room in our freezer.

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:54 am

Our Dexter calves are weaned at 6 months and are 180 - 200kgs in weight by then. After going through their first Winter, we now have weights of 229 - 250 for the long legged yearlings. A short leg steer went from 149.5 at 6 months to 183 kg at 12 months.

The steers are fed grass and hay over Winter, not grain. Which is why it takes a few years for them to reach killable weights. They can only put the majority of their weight on, during the Summers. Still, its worth waiting for.

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:17 am

Broomfield, I can give you a list of weights for some of our heifers up to 2 yrs of age (3 yrs for some).

Our steers usually get sold as yearlings, (although this season, the steers will have to be sold as weaners, as we have too many calves to over-Winter). So I only have weights of steers up to a year old.

For some reason I'm not able to edit my posts after I've posted them. Not sure why the programme doesn't recognise computer?