Our friend Ben and his family run a dairy farm near Newquay and the calf wastage he was seeing from his farm just didn’t sit right with him. Last summer we came up with the idea of giving ‘Rose Veal’ a go…..

Ben’s beautiful dairy cows are Jersey’s who produce the creamiest richest milk but are very small in size. Pedigree female calves are kept and eventually join the family’s milking herd. The males and cross bred calves are fundamentally worthless when sold at the livestock market due to their jersey breeding. Commercial beef farmers aren’t interested in purchasing them as the size they will grow to doesn’t make them a viable option. Unfortunately this results in many being sold straight to slaughter at 6 weeks. This is what we refer to as ‘calf wastage’.

This is an issue unseen by the public and one we feel is extremely important to highlight. In a world where we are being more conscious about what we eat and the environmental impact of food production. I would argue that if we want to continue consuming dairy we need to start consuming rose veal.

The calves arrived with us last summer at about 2 weeks old and the children absolutely loved caring for them and particularly feeding them their milk. Until they all got a bit bigger and more boisterous when it all got a bit chaotic!

Once the calves were weaned off milk we turned them out in the fields until late autumn.

This is a far cry from the horror images of ‘white veal’ production when calves would be kept in crates (banned in the 90’s in the UK and 2006 in the EU) and only fed milk resulting in the very pale meat colour.

Over winter the calves were moved into the barn in our yard and have been a big hit with all visitors to the farm!

This is our first time producing rose veal and to say we are thrilled with the meat would be an understatement. It is a testament to farming with care and compassion.

Beef is classed as ‘veal’ if slaughtered under 12 months of age. As a side note much commercial beef is little more than 12 months when slaughtered before hitting supermarket shelves.

If you haven’t tried rose veal before if has a delicate beefy flavour and a buttery soft texture. Eating and cooking veal is all new to us and we have been enjoying trying the different cuts. So far the veal chops and smash burgers made with veal mince have been our favourite!