DEAR SIR:

Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing, eg, how come the use of dairy bull calves wasn’t forecast?

How come the nutritional value of bovine products wasn’t communicated to consumers many years before these came under attack in the marketplace?

Now one has to deal with market reality. Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe says “the customer of today has zero tolerance to euthanasia” (Irish Farmers Journal, 26 October 2019).

I think it would be a nail in the coffin of the bovine industry

I agree. Not only will the consumer abhor the idea – just picture the anti-meat/dairy lobby broadcasting this practice.

I think it would be a nail in the coffin of the bovine industry. Personally, I have no emotional objection to the practice – it is after all a quick, humane death.

However, I think it represents an unacceptable waste of resources – feed, nutrition, farmer care of the in-calf cow and no use of the animals.

What about veal for the export market? Rose veal – other veal methods have a bad reputation.

Clearly this can’t be developed overnight, but it seems to me to be the only practical way forward.

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What next?: potential solutions to bull calf issue