The Rural Voice, 2000-09, Page 18SUCCESS WITH A
DIFFERENCE
Milk -fed veal helped
Bob and Tineke Vander Neut
build a new life in Canada
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
14 THE RURAL VOICE
When you start out with nothing you have to take
what you can get, and Bob and Tineke Vander
Neut have, built a strong farm business on taking
what others didn't want and turning it into a food product
for which people will pay'a premium.
Today the Vander Neuts have a successful milk -fed veal
operation producing about 1.000 head per year but when
Bob came to Canada in 1981, he had just two suitcases.
"You get more satisfaction out of building something up
together," Bob says.
Though both came from the Netherlands, they'd come
from opposite ends of the country and would have had little
chance of meeting there. says Tineke. She had emigrated
first and. after they met here, she actually sponsored Bob,
because he was just here as a visitor.
Bob hadn't worked on farms in Holland, having trained
in engineering and worked in factories for several years,
but farming had become attractive him. In Ontario, he
started out working on a poultry farm near Moorefield.
Tineke, who was trained as a social worker, was working
in a nursing home. They both saved their money to put a
down payment on a farm.
Their opportunity arose when they heard that a small
farm with 50 acres of rough land was available east of
Mount Forest. It had a house and an old hog barn that had
been converted to a veal operation. In a way, that was like
going home for Bob. His father had bought veal calves
back in Holland.
When they bought the farm they had room for 140
calves at a time. Later they added a new barn and capacity
rose to 400 calves at a time.
When they started, the young bull dairy calves they
were raising cost only $40-$60 each, direct from the farm.
Today the same calves cost $175-$200, changing the
economics of the business. Now, instead of raising calves
to 200 pounds dressed weight, they carry them through to
330 pounds dressed weight to spread the additional cost.
(Yield is based on dressed weight with the carcass still -hot
with the hide on.)
Milk fed veal is a specialty product favoured primarily
by Jewish, Italian and Portuguese Canadians though it's
also served in select upscale restaurants in Toronto. The
market is influenced by Jewish holidays and New York,
with its large Jewish population, sets the price for North
America. That price to Ontario producers has risen as high
as $2.95 per pound dressed weight but is currently in the
range of $2.60 per pound. For the Jewish market, some of
the calves are slaughtered under the direction of a rabbi so
that it fits kosher requirements but there's no real premium
to the producer, Bob says.
Over the last 11 years, the Vander Neuts have
developed a close relationship with Holly Park packers
north of Toronto, one of about 10 Ontario packers
processing veal. U.S. packers also buy Ontario veal. Bob
likes the close proximity of the Holly Park plant, meaning
the calves have little stress between the time they leave the
Bob and Tineke Vander Neut now keep 400 veal
calves like the playful one in the picture at top.
They've created their own mixing and feeding system
to pump milk to the different rooms in the barn
(bottom).