High-quality

High-quality veal farming

For top-quality veal, it is essential that calves have the best life possible. Our veal farms must meet strict criteria regarding good housing, balanced nutrition and quality of care.

Farms for white veal calves

All our veal farms share the goal of ensuring excellent animal welfare. But no two farms are exactly alike. For example, some farms focus on raising white veal calves. The calves arriving at these farms have been exclusively milk fed. They remain here until they are ready for slaughter. They are fed a combination of milk and roughage.

We have contracts with some of these farms. We make detailed agreements with them about how we want the entire process of housing and feeding the calves to be managed. This is important because of the high standards required for white veal. Maintaining these standards across all white veal farms guarantees the best quality.

Starter stalls

Our starter stalls house calves that have come from dairy farms. These are usually heavier unweaned calves. They have a greater capacity for digesting roughage compared to lighter calves, making them ideal for the production of rosé veal.

The veal farmer gradually reduces the amount of milk the calves in the starter barn consume until their diet consists entirely of roughage. When the calves are 12 weeks old and eating solid feed, they are moved to farms for rosé veal calves, where they stay until they are ready for slaughter.

Farms for rosé and young beef calves

Farms specialising in rosé and young beef calves are where the farmer 'finishes' the final flavour of the veal. This is achieved by continuing to provide good care for the calves in accordance with the criteria of various quality certifications. Calves remain here until they are eight months old. Calves in the 'young beef' category are a little older and are slaughtered when they are between eight and twelve months old.

The calves from farms with which we have contracts eventually go to our Vitelco abattoir. To guarantee a continuous supply of calves, we also invest heavily in working with independent veal farmers.

For more information about our supply chain cooperation in veal farming