Rose Veal - How to produce?

[Broomcroft]

Hello - I've got some nice calves coming through and want to try some rose veal. They are Angus X Dexter and I am guessing they'll be around about 300-400 kg liveweight at 10-12 months old with good shape. This is a real guess but at 5.1/2 months some are nearly as tall as mom!

What do I feed, anything or just let them graze my grass-clover leys. I have a creep feeder but never used it yet.

When should I wean? Normally wean at 9 months by which time the calves will be much bigger than their dams so thinking of 7 months and introducing them to some creep first.

How are they butchered, same cuts just smaller or what?

When are they butchered? I've seen 10-12 months old quoted by Blade Farming.



Edited By Broomcroft on 1276626092

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I would suspect you may be about to waste some good quality beef Clive. Other regular contributors will have direct experience of Rose veal, but one of our clients does it with holstein cross bull calves, killing at about 6 months old by which time they are about the size of one of my 26month dexter steers. I would guess he is killing them at about 150kg carcass wt, and makes a nice product out of what many other dairy farmers would be looking on as hopeless. They are milk fed, in multiple pens with plenty access to light, space and straw. He has "Welfare Friendly Veal" on some of his publicity.

He manages to make some money from what, as I said, many dairy farmers would think were worth nothing, some still even shoot them at birth. We have tried it, and it certainly is good.

Your cross steers, on the other hand, will surely be worth much more as finished beef.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Sorry typing faster than thinking, pure holstein bull calves are what is being used.

Duncan

[domsmith]

The term rose veal ecompasses any beast under 8 months reared however you chose. dairy farmers use milk, non dairy farmers get off milk asap.

there is a borders farm peelham, they use luing suckler cows to produce their "field raised beef veal" what a load of bull****. they say its for welfare reasons they dont want to wean their calves, but it saves them wintering the calves. they are organic so preach down to me as a humble common farmer. rant over

your beef is wasted as veal clive, try it and see. veal is tender and lean works well with sauces, but dexter is sublime as matured beef. as to profit it will be a balance of reduced wintering costs over reduced income. butchering and killing to be thought through.

we wean our bulls at 8 weeks feed hard with fodder and barley and finish at 8 months. its darker, still tender and much sort after here, we sell all we produce.

all the same cuts as beef, but many little treats. calf liver is the best, sweet breads, osso bucco i would like all my stirks to have 8 legs. anything you can slice is an escalope, ribs and t bones are to die for. tongue, cheek, kidneys all superb
our carcass sizes are typically 75 kgs per side can be up to 90.

hope that helps

dom

[Anna]

your beef is wasted as veal clive, try it and see. veal is tender and lean works well with sauces, but dexter is sublime as matured beef. as to profit it will be a balance of reduced wintering costs over reduced income. butchering and killing to be thought through.

we wean our bulls at 8 weeks feed hard with fodder and barley and finish at 8 months. its darker, still tender and much sort after here, we sell all we produce.

Now I do not understand..
Domsmith, do you butcher your bull calves att 8 months while you say that Clives beef will be wasted at a similar age?

Weaning at 8 weeks is very early for suckler calves, what is the reason? To milk the cows?

[domsmith]

sorry, no, we wean our dairy bulls off bucket milk at 8 weeks, our sucklers stay with mothers for 9 months. we have 2 seperate enterprises. beef and veal

dom

[Louisa Gidney]

Clive if you leave to 10months ish, they will not even be rose veal but proper dark red beef colour. Good eating but very definitely not veal. I've killed many entire males about this age in Nov, weaned a week or so beforehand & finished off grass. Kill out about 100-120kg for non-short.
I've just bought some Guernsey veal bones from Boccadon veal, aged c. 6 months. The bones are massive compared to the 4-6 month Jersey bulls I did about 15 years ago & no use whatsoever for what I wanted, comparative reference collection for archaeological calf bones. These are as big as my adult Dexters.
Besides Boccadon veal in Devon, there's another rose veal company in Dumfries/Galloway that I'm hoping to get some Ayrshire "veal" bones from. Have a play on Google to find their websites & how they produce rose veal.

[Anna]

sorry, no, we wean our dairy bulls off bucket milk at 8 weeks, our sucklers stay with mothers for 9 months. we have 2 seperate enterprises. beef and veal

dom

Ok, now I follow.

So the 8 months diary rose veal makes ok meat if you don´t hunt for fabulous taste, but is nothing like finished beef?

[domsmith]

Besides Boccadon veal in Devon, there's another rose veal company in Dumfries/Galloway that I'm hoping to get some Ayrshire "veal" bones from. Have a play on Google to find their websites & how they produce rose veal.

Thats Me!!!