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[–] 5 points 3 days ago (4 children)

most dairy calves are brought to full weight before slaughter.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    a man who has never eaten veal.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    hardly any dairy calves end up as veal.

    the mathhttps://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/48685/milkcowsandprod.xlsx?v=1413.4

    https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/livestock-meat-domestic-data/resource/257788c4-e153-4712-abf3-f2f339bbefec

    thousands_of_head_of_cows = 9448.0
    actual_cows = 1000 * thousands_of_head_of_cows
    annual_male_calves = .5 * actual_cows
    veal_weight_of_calves_in_pounds = 260
    annual_veal_production_in_millions_of_pounds = 58
    annual_percentage_of_bobby_calves_that_become_veal = ((annual_veal_production_in_millions_of_pounds * 1000000) /  (veal_weight_of_calves_in_pounds * annual_male_calves))*100
    print(annual_percentage_of_bobby_calves_that_become_veal)
    

    4.722204129486094

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (1 child)

    It's highly market-senstive what happens to them, but I have previously worked on dairy farms in NZ and AU, and in both countries, calves(except replacement heifers) that get raised at all are a rounding error, maybe a handful per farm that are kept for personal slaughter and consumption.

    If the bobby-calf (aka veal) market is paying well enough, then they are shipped off for slaughter at ~4 days old. If the market doesnt pay well enough to justify 4 days of rearing costs, then they are killed immediately and sold for their skins.

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