Effect of health status upon arrival at a single milk-fed veal facility on breakeven purchase price of calves

摘要

Male calves are purchased from the dairy industryin North America to produce red meat. The price paidfor male calves varies widely, and it is unclear whichvariables influence the price paid for each calf. Theobjective of this study was to assess how the healthtraits of calves at the time of arrival and demographicvariables affect the breakeven purchase price of a malecalf entering the veal industry. A financial model wasconstructed using the prevalence of health abnormalities,weight at arrival, source of the calf, number of daysin the barn, base carcass price, days to mortality, feedcosts, season at arrival, interest rate, housing location,carcass dressing percentage, and costs associated withhousing, labor, utilities, trucking, and health to calculatethe breakeven purchase price and an estimate ofprofit. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using healthvariables measured at arrival and demographic variables,including season at arrival and housing location,to identify the factors with the largest impact on thepredicted average daily gain, early and late mortalityrisk, breakeven purchase price, and profit. At the baselineinputs, the average calculated profit was −$5.36per calf and it was most sensitive to the location ofhousing where calves were fed and the body weight ofthe arriving calf. The mortality risk in the first 21 dafter arrival (early) was calculated to be 2.2%, whereasthe risk of mortality after 21 d (late) was 3.7%. Therisks of early and late mortality were most sensitive tothe level of dehydration measured at arrival and theseason at arrival for the purchased calves, respectively.The calculated average daily gain was 1.12 kg/d andit was most sensitive to housing location. The breakevenpurchase price was calculated to be $242.49 percalf, which was most sensitive to the housing locationwhere the calves were fed. The results of this analysisdemonstrate that veal producers need to considermany variables before purchasing calves. In addition tooverall market conditions, veal producers should factorhealth characteristics and the expected performance ofthe calves they purchase into what they are willing topay for them.