JANUARY 28, 2008: Exports of live calves become outlawed if a new initiative is successful.
The initiative is being led by The Beyond Calf Exports project, led by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).They have drawn together farmers’ groups, supply chain partners and retailers to encourage the development of economically viable markets for the domestic rearing and production of male dairy calves.Historically, many black-and-white dairy calves were considered unsuitable for beef production: many of the 482,000 born in the UK each year are killed shortly after birth or exported to continental veal farms.The stakeholder group has now concluded that the domestic market could easily absorb all Holstein bulls produced on the UK’s dairy farms without depressing prices or exceeding slaughterhouse capacity – even in the unlikely event that all calves could be made available.
