OPRAH TRANSCRIPT

The Oprah Winfrey Show – October 18, 2008

OPRAH:  Well, coming up we’re going to meet a husband and wife who raise veal without the use of crates.  We’ll talk to them when we come back. 

Amy and Bart Mitchell are also veal farmers and they run a free raise operation, and they don’t believe in confining their calves in crates.  Here’s a look at their farm.

[Spring Creeks Cattle Company, Wauzeka, Wisconsin]

NARRATOR:  Amy and Bart Mitchell are the second generation to raise calves on this farm in Wisconsin. 

AMY: We have approximately 600 cows, and approximately 200 of them are tagged for veal.

NARRATOR: Their veal calves are sold to Strauss Brands, one of the country’s largest veal producers.

AMY:  They’re free raised, which means they are never confined.  They’re always kept out here with their mother, given their mother’s milk.

BART:  yep

AMY:  all right

[car door shuts, drives]

BART:  On a day to day basis we would drive through our calves, just to check for health.  There’s no reason to bring them in to a building or put them in a pen.

AMY:  The way that we are raising these calves is actually costing our farm less than other ways of raising the calves.  We’re really proud to be able to be raising calves in a way that Mother Nature intended.  It’s better for the planet, and it’s better for the calves.

[back in Oprah’s studio]

OPRAH:  I heard you say it’s also, that it’s less expensive.

AMY:  Um, well, no,

OPRAH:  Raising calves?

AMY:  We do have the overhead costs of maintaining the whole cow herd and finding the land for them, it takes lots of land to feed all those cows on and to have the pastures for.  However, we don’t use any antibiotics or growth hormones.  We have no formula to purchase.  We don’t have the buildings that it takes house that many calves, so we don’t have to upkeep those buildings, or um, build any of those structures on our farm.

OPRAH:  You’d say, is it less work for you, do you think?

BART:  Well, any time that you can remove the stress from an animal and leave it out with its mother, like Mother Nature intended it to - we feel that the day to day actual hands on activity with that cow is less.

We do have to work with the cow and we breed her and things like that in the long run.  But, on a day to day basis there is less actual hands on work

OPRAH:  Be right back.