BEEF AND ROSE VEAL

At Stroud Micro Dairy, we run a cow with calf dairy, which means that instead of removing the calves from their Mums shortly after birth (as in most conventional dairies), they stay together for 5-8 months. We feel this is much higher welfare for the calves: they get the benefit of their mother's nutritious milk, they learn grazing and social behaviours from adult cows in the herd, they get a diverse, pasture-rich diet and a whole lot of loving from mums and aunts in the herd. The Mums get a chance to express their natural mothering instincts which kick in with birth, and benefit from more complex social relationships developing in the herd as they look after each other's calves.

Although this benefits the animals we look after, it means we lose out on milk which is going to the calves instead of being sold, and creates more labour when moving newborn calves around the farm for milking and grazing! So we're trying out Rose Veal as a means of supplementing the income we receive from the milk. Taken around 5-8 months old, the same age as lamb and pork, the calves are ready for weaning and independence from their Mum.

Our methods differ significantly from industrial veal, which is where the bad press around veal comes from. In white veal, the calves are separated at birth and usually raised only on milk powder, often restricted from exercise and kept entirely indoors. The rose veal we sell is wonderfully marbled thanks to all that raw milk, full of flavour from the micronutrients they get from grazing healthy pastures, and amazingly tender. The cost of veal is a little higher than beef, which reflects similar processing costs for a smaller animal.