Veal Calves, an Alternative System to Increase the Profitability of Dairy Sectors

Abstract

With the purpose of increasing the profitability of milk producers, a pilot study for the production system of veal dairy calves was conducted. This type of rearing is not practiced in our country at present. The study was carried out in the establishment of “cabaña Alicia” dairy farm, located in the district of Magdalena, province of Buenos Aires. 12 Argentinean Holando breed male non-castrated calves were employed for this study, and they were fed on a milk replacer-based liquid diet, to obtain a pale meat as the final product. This kind of meat is characteristic of Europe and also quite widespread throughout this continent. Fortnightly weighting was performed to control the daily body weight gain (DWG). Finally, the calves were slaughtered six months later, with an average DWG 0.73 kg/day, average BW 181 kg, and beef yield 57.6%; blood iron exams at the end of the cycle resulted in average 7.8 gr/dl, considered within the expected parameters to avoid the occurrence of anemia. Thus, we can conclude that this production proposal, compared to traditional artificial calf rearing, is a convenient opportunity to those producers who can enter the market of this kind of meat, or seek consumption sites in our country.