home made rennet ?

A neighbour of mine works at the local sale barn. She tells me that many week old male dairy calves are 'no sells' and are put down at the end of the night.  Sad but true. They are no sales because they are weak, because many unscrupulous dairy farmers dont give them colostrum because the colostrum is worth more than the calf.  Goes to show how out of touch we are with nature if you ask me.  

I would never kill a calf that would survive just to make rennet from its stomach, but at least doing so on one of these no sales would mean its short life was nt a total waste.  Is the process of making rennet documented any book? I wonder how much cheese you can make from one calf's stomach.

Has anyone ever done this?

If I remember right, this book has a rennet recipe https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Natural-Cheesemaking-Traditional-Non-Industrial/dp/1603585788

It takes a few months.  

I wonder if Kate's book has a rennet recipe?  https://permies.com/wiki/225187/Natural-Small-Batch-Cheesemaking-Kate

looks like there's a section on 'homemade rennet'

If Kate's book has it then all the better! Hope to get a copy this year.

Here are a couple of threads about making rennet:

https://permies.com/t/164617/Experiments-homemade-plant-rennets

https://permies.com/t/49176/Experience-wild-rennets

https://permies.com/t/54165/Animal-Rennet-Making-home-WARNING

If the animals are going to waste anyway, then it can make sense to make rennet from them. I have done this from goat kids that have died of natural causes.

I provide detailed instructions (with pictures) for extracting the right part, processing it, and using it in cheesemaking in my book.

I think you’re on the right path. It does seem like such a waste for such amazing creatures not to have been given a chance to get back to the world they were born into. Rennet it would at least make their short time here have been worth it.