STOCK BOBBY CALVES
Bobby calves an emotive but profitable product The processing of bobby calves is banned in almost every country now. How has New Zealand responded to this change? Karen Trebilcock reports.
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ew Zealand is caught between the world’s ethical stance on bobby calves and its need for the products manufactured
from them. As part of the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, Greg Hamill, LIC’s genetics business and strategy manager, sought to get a better understanding of the consequences of removing bobby calves from the industry. The report, released last month, focused on what NZ, and the world, would be giving up if bobby calves were phased out. The slaughter of young calves is banned in almost every country which has increased the demand for products from NZ’s calves. Although almost all of what comes from bobby calves can be produced from an adult animal, the quality of the products is often reduced. Among those products is blood serum which, according to one of the report’s sources, was likely to have been used in the past 18 months in the development and manufacture of the many vaccines against Covid-19. Blood serum from a four-day-old calf is used as it contains few antibodies which would inhibit its usefulness. Besides a multitude of other human and animal vaccines, from polio to canine parvovirus, animal serum is also used in DNA testing. But it is not just the calf’s blood that is in demand. Every part of a bobby calf is used and will end up in products as diverse as perfume and paint to glue and cake mix. The meat will grace the best restaurant tables in the world and also your cat’s food bowl. 84
Above: The slaughter of young calves is banned in almost every country which has increased the demand for products from New Zealand’s calves. Left: LIC’s genetics business and strategy manager Greg Hamill.
And although artificial or synthetic replacements were available for some of the products, there was increased consumer desire for natural choices, Greg said. European cheese makers under the Protected Geographical Status in European law source rennet from New Zealand as synthetic rennet can’t be used for authentic cheeses. Rennet comes from the fourth stomach, the vell, of a calf and almost every calf slaughtered in New Zealand has the vell removed for processing into rennet which is exported.
As well, lipase, an enzyme extracted from the glands at the base of the calf’s tongue, is used as an ingredient in baked products to help keep them fresher for longer, reducing world-wide food wastage.
IRONY OF BOBBY CALVES BAN “It seems ironic to me that the consumers in international countries like China or Europe that want dairy and meat products from countries that do not support a bobby calf industry, are the same countries/ consumers that will pay premiums for the co-products that are generated from the bobby calf,” Greg said. Every year about 1.9 million four-day-old calves are slaughtered in NZ and although strict animal welfare code requirements regulate the transportation and treatment of the calves, he said it was an emotive subject and they were often deemed a waste product of the dairy industry.
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2021
