Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
to eat veal. In recent years, even many of the largest veal producers have moved away from
crates and have begun raising small groups of veal calves in pens, a practice known as
group
housing
. In 2007, the American Veal Association passed a resolution calling for all veal
calves to be raised in group housing by the end of 2017.
Many dairy cattle farmers go further than that to humanely raise veal and instead raise
pasture-raised veal. Pasture-raised veal calves are left on their mothers, or on nurse cows, and
allowed to live naturally until time for harvest at 5 to 6 months old. To soothe people who are
still saddened that even pasture-raised veal calves have to die so young, grass-fed cattle farm-
ers point out that these calves are slaughtered at the same age as lambs. You can tell how veal
was raised just by looking at it — pasture-raised veal will be pink or rose colored, which is
why pasture-raised veal is sometimes called rose veal.
After Weaning
Newly weaned calves are still growing after weaning, and you want to make sure they still
gain weight in this phase. A good forage base will take care of this, although forage's winter
or summer dormant periods can slow down weight gain. If you fear your cattle are going to
lose weight, you can use hay or other supplements to keep them gaining weight. The more
they can gain in this phase, the easier it will be to finish them when grass growth picks up
again.
Throughout the stocker phase, a good average rate of daily gain is 1 ½ pounds. You may be
able to surpass this during times of peak grass growth. Daily gains will slow when grass goes
dormant, but farmers have reported good-quality beef even if their animals gained as little as
½ pound a day during December or January or July and August. For optimum beef quality, re-
searchers of a joint project called “Economic Pasture Based Beef Systems for Appalachia”
from the USDA-ARS Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center, in Beaver, West Vir-
ginia, Clemson University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, and West Virgin-
ia University, recommended about 1 pound per day during the winter months. Aim for about 2
pounds per day in the finishing phase. Many of the farmers interviewed for this topic said
they are not able to weigh their animals to monitor precise average daily gains. But as you de-
velop an eye for animals, you will be able to tell if they are losing, gaining, or maintaining
weight. They said they try to feed their animals well enough to keep them gaining in winter
and to avoid any periods where the animals are losing weight.
