Thoughts on veal

[Tad]

Now that we are getting $19 for a 100 pound holstien bulls I was thinking of keeping a few in an extra pen for veal. I can save the rinse water from the pipline, about 50/50 water and milk throw in some hay and the are basicaly raised for free. Anybody done this? How does it taste? How long does it take? ANy pitfalls to watch out for? Thanks in advance for the input.

[Chixarecute]

Veal is traditionally all milk fed, no hay or grain. The pipline rinse water, even if not contaminated with soaps, etc, would not be a great idea, as the extra volume of fluid they would need to consume to get the nutritional needs met by the milk would be likely to cause scouring.

As a supplement or only fluid source for older (hay/grain fed, weaned) calves, it would probably be a great way to get more growth.

[TSYORK]

No offense, but why on God's green earth would anyone want to feed, something they're going to eat, water from the pipeline? Feed it fresh water and feed and you'll get fresh meat in return, feed it junk and that's what you'll get in return, if it doesn't die before then.

[Tad]

If fresh water mixed with milk is junk than I don't know how I have raised all those pigs. It is rinsed after milking so all "the soaps and things" would be rinsed out by the milk we all drink. They would be bottle fed untill the were weaning size I wouldn't start a three day old calf on a 5 gallon bucket of milk.

[Farm 36]

Tad you can do this we always had a couple older calves and feed them the waste water milk. The only advice that I can tell you is even if the calves are worth little so are steers that are not perfect for the buyer .By me if the holsteins are not on full grain and dehorned and castrated you will lose more money than before .

[Tad]

I was thinking personal use and retail to a few friends and family. I only have room for 3 or 4, I won't raise all of them. Just wondered about yield or tase from anyone who had done it before.

[Trisha in WA]

Tad,
We just butchered our 7 month old Holstein steer. DELICIOUS! Very tender. We did not feed any grain, only milk and hay. I have a dairy cow, so I didn't have to pay for milk, so the meat ended up being very cheap...less than $2 per lb. We did do our own butchering though, so that would add to the costs too if you weren't planning to do that part yourself.
Good luck,
Trisha