Beefing up the Response to Bobby Calves: Creating Value and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Beefing up the Response to Bobby Calves: Creating Value and Preserving Trust

The Australian Dairy Conference Canberra 2019

Dr Sarah Bolton BVSc (Hons)

A Social License to Operate

• ‘The privilege of operating

with minimal formalized restrictions’

• Comes from maintaining

public trust by doing what’s right

• Loss of social license

makes it harder for industries to operate

Image source: abc.net.au, 18.6.16

Dairy’s social license under threat

• Activist campaigns often target early life processing

and at-birth euthanasia of bobby calves

Image source: www.veganaustralia.org.au, 17.1.18

Dairy’s social license under threat

• Rejection is not just

coming from animal activists

• A calf as a ‘waste

product’ is at odds with wider public’s personal values

• The ‘Public’ vs the

‘Consumer’

Image source: www.weekly<mesnow.com.au, 6.2.18

How to maintain public trust

• Restrict the flow of

information?

• Educate the public into

understanding?

• Re-align industry

practices with public values?

Organic, grass fed Jersey steers being reared for value added beef in Denmark

Creating and communicating value

• The inherent low value of bobby calves is the

crux of the issue

• No one magic solution
• Many partial solutions
• Opportunities to create value
• Must not ignore the monetary value associated

with maintaining social license to operate

Options for value creation – the toolbox

• Holstein beef
• Sexed semen
• Targeted beef over dairy

cross

• Dual Purpose breeds?
• Marketing

– Health/Taste – Welfare – Reduced Carbon footprint – Rosé Veal, Jersey Beef?

Belgian blue x jersey steer at Old Hall Farm, UK

Jersey Beef – turning challenge into opportunity

• 25% slower growth

rate

• Reduced carcase

yield (~ 50%)

• ++ IM fat, excellent

eating experience

• Similarities drawn

to wagyu

• Yellow fat starting to

trend?

Image source: www.instagram.com/p/BkRswZylycv/, 21.6.18

Thise and Ko: Selling the Jersey beef story

• Thise – Danish organic Jersey milk processor
• Looked to phase out bull calf euthanasia
• Created viable alternative – branded grass-fed Jersey

Beef product

• Sells for higher price per kilo than conventional beef