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Author Topic: Jersey bull calfs  (Read 2935 times)

Azzdodd

  • Joined Apr 2012
Jersey bull calfs
« on: March 23, 2014, 04:01:06 pm »
I've been offered 2 jersey bull calfs for £20 each I know they won't get a great deal off meat on them there 1-2 weeks old now and I would plan on sending them off December time so I guess it would still be classed as veal? I have a 2 acres paddock with shelter for them and I know they would need feeding 2 times a day till about 8 weeks on replacer is it worth it?

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Jersey bull calfs
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2014, 06:28:50 pm »
We had 2 last year and sent the off at 10 and 12 months. The meat is fantastic.
what we have left is for us but we could have sold it 3 times over with loads of people coming back asking if we have any left
 Apparently it is classed as Young Beef  , our Abattoir said for it to be Rose veal it has to be 8 months  :-\ 

They can be bought for £5 each up here
Graham

Azzdodd

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Jersey bull calfs
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2014, 07:00:51 pm »
Think it might be worth a shot then but I don't really have the facility's to house them over winter though so they would only 7 months

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Jersey bull calfs
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2014, 07:05:20 pm »
They can be bought for £5 each up here

Actually I've seen a pen of 5 sold for £11 the lot  :o

But yes, Jersey beef is very tasty  :yum:

there 1-2 weeks old now and I would plan on sending them off December time so I guess it would still be classed as veal? I have a 2 acres paddock with shelter for them and I know they would need feeding 2 times a day till about 8 weeks on replacer is it worth it?

They'll need feeding at least three times a day until they're maybe 6 weeks old, then can manage on twice a day.

I rear calves and I keep them on milk - and cake as soon as they will - until 4 months.  I know people do wean sooner but IME they really do take a lot longer to get away if they're weaned so young.

FYI, when BH used to buy in calves to rear on a bucket, he wouldn't buy any that weren't at least a month old.  He said there was too high a chance of them not making it before that age.  Now I buy them to put onto my Jersey cows, and we have found that we can get away with buying them a bit younger; days old when the Jersey has just calved, and a couple of weeks old later on in the lactation.


Just seen your next post.  I'd say they won't be worth the cost of the milk, cake, hay and trouble you've put into them at 7 months, unless you can organise someone to buy them off you to take them forward either as rose veal or to slaughter weight.  Wheelbirks (where I got my first Jersey and sokel his) slaughter for their own restaurant and shop at 18 months.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Jersey bull calfs
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2014, 07:30:05 pm »
We got 148kg of meat off our 2 but as I said they where 10 and 12 months old
If they are a couple of weeks old now  you would reach the Rose veal age in November. You would have to either send the then or keep until after Christmas as most abattoirs stop doing private slaughters early December. Ours stopped on the 6th December last year 
Graham

 

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