Beef on Dairy Growing Quickly

The practice of beef on dairy is becoming increasingly common across the industry. International Dairy Foods Association President and CEO Dr. Michael Dykes talks about the concept and its benefits.

“Having been a practicing dairy veterinarian, I remember the days that three day old bull has hard to find a home for them, and they didn't bring hardly anything. Today, every time I talk to another dairy farmer, I hear another price, so they're $1,600 to $1,800 at least. They're adding probably four to 450 per 100 weight of milk to the milk check, just because of the price of beef on dairy, that's probably 70 80% genetics, 20 30% of what we're seeing on the butter fat, the advanced genetics that they're using sex semen to produce the amount of heifers that they need for replacements, and then the rest are going to be on dairy.”

Beef on dairy is a practice that uses beef sires on dairy cows to produce calves raised strictly for beef, offering better feedlot performance and meat quality than traditional dairy type cattle. Adoption has climbed quickly. Beef on dairy made up 7% of fed cattle slaughter in 2022 which is about 2.6 million head. On dairy, use of beef semen has surged from 18% of calves in 2019 to 31% of all semen sold to the dairy sector.