404 Slaughtering of Young Calves. [aug., 



To this letter the Board sent the following reply, dated 

 21st June, 191 1 : — 



Sir, — I am directed by the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries to advert to your letter of the 23rd ult., suggesting 

 the adoption of measures with a view to remedying the alleged 

 scarcity of store cattle in Great Britain, and in reply I am to 

 say that the facts to which you have called attention are fully 

 recognised by the Board. The excessive slaughter of calves 

 appears to them to be due not so much to the extent of the 

 public demand for veal, as to the inconvenience to the dairy 

 farmer of maintaining and rearing calves when the object 

 which he has in view is to increase his supply of milk for 

 sale. 



The Board agree that the dissemination of information as 

 to the prevailing prices of store cattle is useful as a means 

 of enabling the farmer to determine whether it is to his 

 advantage to put his calves into the store market instead of 

 slaughtering them, and this is one of the purposes which led 

 the Board to publish a Weekly Return of Market Prices, 

 compiled from data collected from a large number of markets 

 in Great Britain. The Return is issued every Saturday and 

 may be obtained direct or through any bookseller from 

 Wyman & Sons, Fetter Lane, E.C., or Oliver & Boyd, 

 Edinburgh, price id. A copy of the Return for the week 

 ended the 15th inst. is enclosed for your acceptance. 



As the production of milk for the sole purpose of sale 

 increases, the difficulty experienced by the dairy farmer of 

 finding a local purchaser for his calves who really wants 

 them for rearing increases in like proportion, and the question 

 as to what can be done to facilitate the easy and rapid 

 transfer of young calves from the cow owner to farms adapted 

 for their rearing without detriment to the condition of the 

 animals, is a very important one. It is anticipated that some 

 system of co-operation between farmers whereby this object 

 could be achieved will form a fundamental part of any scheme 

 for the improvement of cattle breeding, which may be framed 

 by the Board under the Development and Road Improvement 

 Funds Acts. 



The difficulty of successfully feeding young calves with 

 milk substitutes is a further cause of their being slaughtered. 

 The rise in the demand for milk leaves much less for the calf 



