Stillborn Calf Can You Use

[Jennifer L.]

the stomach for rennet? Or does the calf have to have been alive and digested milk in order for rennet to have been excreted? I don't have a calf now, but get one occasionally, and I was wondering this morning if instead of butchering a newborn calf, you could get any benefit from taking the stomach from a calf that was a loss, anyway. Any ideas on this one? Yes, I buy my rennet but if I'm going to toss a calf in the spreader and I could use the stomach it would make sense to do it.

Jennifer

[js2743]

dont think i would use anything from a dead animal you have no idea why it died might be something wrong with it that could cause you serious problems.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by js2743

dont think i would use anything from a dead animal you have no idea why it died might be something wrong with it that could cause you serious problems.

You often know why a calf dies. Could be a birth accident or some such thing totally unrelated to any illness.

[Jennifer L.]

js2743, most of the time a stillborn calf simply suffocated either taking too long in the birthing process, or maybe had placenta covering its nose when it came out, and suffocated that way. I'm not talking about a calf that was aborted, where disease could be an issue, but a normal calf that just got unlucky.

So no one has any ideas on this? Looks like something I may just have to try out, then. I have an idea the digestive process is necessary, but it's simple enough to take a stomach and put milk in it and see if something curds up.

Jennifer

[MaggieJ]

This is interesting, Jennifer. I hope if you try it you will post updates... (or maybe even PM me if you remember?) It's just the kind of info that could be useful in my historical novel... and I am always interested in "waste not, want not" ideas.

[MullersLaneFarm]

I don't know for certain, but I believe you can. You can't use the stomach lining for rennet after the calf has started eating grass

[suburbanite]

I'd think if you lost a calf due to a birth accident that the entire calf could be used and eaten as veal.

[js2743]

Originally Posted by Jennifer L.

js2743, most of the time a stillborn calf simply suffocated either taking too long in the birthing process, or maybe had placenta covering its nose when it came out, and suffocated that way. I'm not talking about a calf that was aborted, where disease could be an issue, but a normal calf that just got unlucky.

So no one has any ideas on this? Looks like something I may just have to try out, then. I have an idea the digestive process is necessary, but it's simple enough to take a stomach and put milk in it and see if something curds up.

Jennifer

i have seen 1000 or so calves born in my time here and i know all about them but im not gonna eat something that never had life in it. now you say it smothered or had hard time being born thats true but there is still the possibilty that something was wrong with it. but i guess if you want to eat it go ahead and try it might be good lol . does that make road kill fare game as long as its not swollen or stinking.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

An artisan cheesemaker purchases some of our bucklings each year for rennet, they have to have consumed colostrum....she butchers them right here, ties up the stomach and takes it home to dry, then cuts it into pieces to use, it floats in her milk vat, then she scoops it out and resuses it until it no longer works. The rest of the buckling is fed as meaty bones to our dogs. Vicki

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by js2743

does that make road kill fare game as long as its not swollen or stinking.

Absolutely!

[MullersLaneFarm]

Originally Posted by js2743

does that make road kill fare game as long as its not swollen or stinking.

I would say so. road kill in the winter is definitely fair game.

[Jennifer L.]

I actually wouldn't have any qualms about eating a stillborn calf if hungry enough. But I've never been that hard up. No, it's just the idea that the rennet could be used. I know all the old timers would butcher a day old bull calf for the stomach for the rennet--I've read about it other places and have a diary from my great grandfather's day talking about going to the neighbor's to get a day old calf just for that purpose.

Thanks for all of the responses!

Jennifer

[js2743]

there you said it, "a day old calf" which meant that it was alive and moving for one day. not laying around dead for a day.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by js2743

there you said it, "a day old calf" which meant that it was alive and moving for one day. not laying around dead for a day.

You have stated no reasons it could not be used.

[MARYDVM]

If you saw the calf take its last breath, that would be OK. But if it died early in the birthing process, would you want to use animal flesh that had been kept at a temperature of 101 degrees for 12 hours before you got it?

[Toads tool]

We usually take the still-born calf and skin him and make a "suit" for a twin.

You take the skin and slip it onto a twin calf so it smells like the still-born and let it suck from the still-born mother.
Once her milk travels through the twin calf she'll accept the twin as her own. This leaves the twins mother with just one calf to feed and let's you use the still-borns momma as an adopted mother.
A couple days is all it takes.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Toads tool

We usually take the still-born calf and skin him and make a "suit" for a twin.

You take the skin and slip it onto a twin calf so it smells like the still-born and let it suck from the still-born mother.
Once her milk travels through the twin calf she'll accept the twin as her own. This leaves the twins mother with just one calf to feed and let's you use the still-borns momma as an adopted mother.
A couple days is all it takes.

This really isn't necessary. It is pretty easy to foster a calf onto a cow without using a hide. Last month I fostered a second calf onto a dairy cow 2 weeks after she calved. Funny thing is that the cow accepted the calf right off, but it took a couple days for the calf to warm up to the cow.