An innovative production system producing three different sustainable beef products from offspring of the organic dairy sector – productivity and climate impact of beef aiming at replacing quantity with quality.

Summary

In this study we propose an innovative organic beef production system that offers a diversity of beef products, based on offspring from dairy cows, and with the aim to score high on animal welfare, meat quality, consumer satisfaction, and biodiversity. Furthermore, the aim was to obtain a high level of meat quality, and a storytelling of a system addressing “less is more”, which is supposed to facilitate healthier eating i.e., a lower intake of high-quality beef. The system was based on steers and includes calf rearing by a foster cow, use of low energy density roughage during winter, and extensive pasture for weaned steers. The system considers variation in growth capacity by slaughtering 1/3 of the best performing calves at 8 months as rosé veal (A), another 1/3 at 16 months as young beef (B; medium performing), and the last 1/3 at 26 months as mature beef (C; lowest performing).