Waste Product

This Jersey steer had no value as a male dairy breed and would have gone to slaughter at 5 days old with the rest of the male calves, but he is now happily sharing a paddock with some goats at Koonac.   At 18 months or so he will be slaughtered for their freezer.

There has been some media coverage recently about the fate of  “bobby” calves, which are normally sold for slaughter, at five days old.   There is only a limited veal market, which is more likely to come from beef breeds, which means that the slaughtered dairy calves are often rendered down to produce industrial products with other parts used as high-protein meat additives while the small, soft hide goes to leather tanners, and the stomach to cheesemakers.

In Britain, Pig Farmer Jimmy Doherty recently campaigned to have humanely raised rose veal developed as a market so that the calves were not considered a waste product to be rendered down into meal and had a longer life.