[SallyintNorth]

For a variety of reasons, we have decided to send our 8-month old stirk off now.  He’s a Jersey x Red Devon.

He’s only ever had his mother’s milk (he’s not weaned), grass, hay and haylage, he’s in good shape - he’ll make good rose veal, won’t he? 

I’ve never produced rose veal before.  Does it want to be hung before butchering, and if so, how long would you recommend?

Are there any cuts specific to rose veal?  Or would we just have the same cuts we would for beef, but they’d be smaller and paler?

[greenbeast]

We never hung ours, sent between 6 and 12 months.
Yes i'm sure he'll make great rose veal, ours came here from a dairy already on powdered milk which i continued for a short while before weaning to calf nuts.
Regarding cuts, Yes pretty much, depending on size things like the sirloin might be cut differently, we only got what people would call a 'sirloin steak' on our oldest calves.
We always get a lot of escalopes cut as they are bloody lovely and sell well

[Fleecewife]

I used to be very anti veal when all we heard was the cruelty of production, crates, darkness and so on.  Then I heard of rose veal and realised what a good idea it was.  I have only tried it once and was not impressed, and I have never tried white baby veal, so I will be very interested to hear what you and your community think of it.  So much better than shooting and disposing of male baby calves for want of something to do with them.
I hope it's a treat 

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks greenbeast, just what I wanted to know. Escalopes is a good idea, will ask the butcher to do some.

Jersey and Red Devon are both super tasty beef, so it will be interesting to see what the rose veal is like.  Jersey is incredibly lean, but marbled, and Red Devon is also marbled - but I don’t know if marbling appears this young.

Our general MO is to rear the calves of both our house cows for two summers then send them off for beef.  But this one has ended up a lone calf, we don’t want to buy a companion in, and we really need to separate him from the two girls now as he’s being a typical teenager and his half sister is about to have her first calf.  So it was either sell him for someone else to fatten or try rose veal.  We’ve decided on the latter.

[SallyintNorth]

Another question - would rose veal make good pastrami and salt beef, do you think?  Or might it be too light on fat?

[greenbeast]

I have only tried it once and was not impressed

That's a shame, i love ours, but my OH does prefer beef (stronger flavour)

[greenbeast]

Another question - would rose veal make good pastrami and salt beef, do you think?  Or might it be too light on fat?

I wouldn't know about that

[Fleecewife]

I have only tried it once and was not impressed

That's a shame, i love ours, but my OH does prefer beef (stronger flavour)

Yes, that's it.  Or in our case Hebridean sheep meat which is quite like beef.

[YorkshireLass]

Another question - would rose veal make good pastrami and salt beef, do you think?  Or might it be too light on fat?

What did you try in the end?

[SallyintNorth]

Hah!  Well, Froggy is still here at the mo.

When it was time to register his birth, last May, I was a few days late to do so.  (Lambing, cow had mastitis, you know how it is ). I pondered.... should I say he was born a week later than he was?  Or be truthful? 

I made a bad choice. 

And then compounded my error by not checking the passport.  Which, it turns out, was never sent, because if you are so much as a day late, they won’t issue a passport.

So now, despite my pleas that he can’t be anybody else’s calf (we only had one female of breeding age on the holding when he was born!), we are having to get DNA tests done of him and his mum, which is the only way they will now issue a passport.  And it’s costing a shoulder and a rump :/ and taking forever

It’s all dragged on so long now we’ve had to wean him anyway (God bless you Quiet Wean tags!) and he’s now running with his own mum, the new mum (his half sister) and her now six week old calf.

On the plus side, he’s moulting now so it’ll probably be worth getting the skin processed by the time we get him away.  He’s a fantastic brindley red, so it should be fabulous.