Veal operation?

[emeraldbutton]

We are beginning farmers, we recently started a wonderful business partnership selling meat rabbits to a restaurant who uses local small farm foods. I explained to him one of the benefits of working with us is that just starting out we are open to growing what he is looking for. He said he would really like to have veal on the menu. We are going to be leasing land this spring and my fiancé is leaving his job in July to go full time with farming. Do any of you have experience raising and selling veal? My best friend is an organic dairy farmer and in college I milked cows for a year but that is the extent of our cattle experience. Any advice or suggestions or personal stories would be greatly appreciated!


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[opportunity]

Having a way to get the babies is going to be one of the harder parts, you must have a steady source. Also not sure about regulation on a veal operation.

[emeraldbutton]

We live in a dairy heavy area so I'm going to look into that as a supply of calves but that is a bridge we will cross shortly because as of right now we are just in the stage of research and weighing pros and cons to starting this adventure. Being a holiday weekend, I plan to call our local Cornell Cooperative Extension on Tuesday to see if a small operation would fall under any state regulations. We already have a loyal USDA butcher.


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[Krooked_S]

There is small pen raising where calves can't hardly move which keeps meat real tender and white and there is loose housing veal which they all can move around among one another and some techniques are letting them eat some grass


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[emeraldbutton]

We would be all about the cowness of cows, no confinement but rather pasture raised suckling calves with nurse cows.


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[hiddensprings]

If you can get the calves cheap you still have to purchase the milk replacer unless you are planning on having either a dairy cow(s) or a bunch of goats in milk to raise those calves. Milk replacer can get real expensive.

[jwal10]

When I was a kid we raised heifer calves from the dairy, they were Holstein cows bred to Hereford bulls, mostly from their dairy heifers. We raised them for nurse cows, bred them and then raised her calf and 3 others for 4 months. They were sold for veal. We then put 4 more on, sold those and dried the cow up. There used to be a lot of veal operations around here but not anymore. They got the calves from dairies and fed milk replacer. There are 4-6 types of veal all get milk except the first. Calves that never get fed, new born to 3 days. This meat is what is used in chicken pot pies. No kidding. Many go this way now. There are calves a month or so old. There is older calves, milk fed to butcher time, very tender. Then veal, even older that is still getting milk but can be up to a year old. Also pasture raised veal, milk grain and or grass.

Restaurants usually use older veal, looks like beef but is very tender....James

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veal

[haypoint]

I always thought Veal was from calves kept inside, fed only milk or milk replacer. That is what gives it the tan coloring. Fed hay or pasture would cause it to have the natural red meat and not look like veal. Be sure your buyer understands that your idea of veal is pasture raised and it won't look or taste like traditional veal. That may be a problem.

[wr]

Before you make any decisions, find out what kind of veal the man has in mind because veal means many things to many people. To some, it's just the meat from young calves and Europeans, those calves are kept in a small area and they are kept out of sunlight and the meat is almost white, which is what most high end places are looking for.

[opportunity]

having nurse cows that take babies can be hard to find just because they have the milk does not mean they want to let everyone have it. These cows usually cost more and not everyone is going to consider these calves veal as they most likly will also eat some of mamas food.

[cathleenc]

I hope that you are able to find a way to raise veal as you want - with adequate supply - and your local restaurant that jumps for joy at your ethical, happy veal. That would be a really happy thing alround!