White Veal Trial Has Three Objectives

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30234, 12 September 1963, Page 14

White Veal Trial Has Three Objectives

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 11. The object of trials by the Kuku-Manukau Co-operative Dairy Company with vealer calves is to find a substitute for the bobby calf industry which is in a decline, to create a use for skim milk from dairy factories by fattening dairy-type animals, and to explore overseas markets, especially' the Hong Kong restaurant trade, for white veal.

White veal, ideal for the perfect Wiener schnitzel, is pale in colour, tastier than chicken and very tender. Calves running on grass produce darker, tougher veal. The 68 Friesian calves in the Kuku-Manukau factory’s £4OOO barn have a diet of milk from the age of one week to about 70 days when they should be at a killing weight of about 2501 b. In that time, they grow from 801 b or 1001 b at a rate of more than 21b a day, slightly higher than the average gain in the field. Normally, calves begin to eat grass when they are a month old On European farms, stock is generally wintered indoors and calves kept off grass, produce the same white veal as is being obtained here. But the Kuku barn is a highly mechanised and hygienic house in which the calves are kept in individual steel pens, about 3ft 6in by 7ft. About 60 gallons of milk is fed to them each day

through piping along the race between the two rows of pens.

They receive whole milk for three weeks. Their diet is then changed to an equal mixture of skim and whole milk, supplemented by but, termilk powder and vitamins. Later, the supply is switched to all skim milk with buttermilk powder and vitamins. The diets were prescribed by Massey College. A 2501 b calf will produce more than 1201 b of veal. The first two carcases will be flown to H ng Kong to an agency which has connexions with. 35 hotels and the restaurant market. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Taiboys), when he had inspected the barn today, said that the trial could represent a break-through in the industry and produce a new source of overseas funds., [One estimate of possible income has been £3 million, which would largely replace

the £4 million which has been earned in the past by the bobby calf industry.] “This turns a by-product into a useful industry,” said Mr Taiboys. It is understood that Canterbury Dairy Farmers. Ltd., is interested in the broiler veal scheme which is well suited to an area which has a skim milk surplus all the year round.