Four Steps Veterinarians Can Take To Help Producers Transition To Beef-On-Dairy

Of the 9.4 million dairy cows in the U.S., about one-third will have a calf that goes into the feedlot this year as part of the beef-on-dairy boon.

Looking ahead, CattleFax predicts U.S. beef-on-dairy cattle numbers will reach between 4 million and 5 million head – roughly 15% of the cattle harvested annually – as early as 2026.

“This program is growing, and it’s growing in importance for producers, veterinarians and the industry,” says Mitch Hockett, director of FarmFit Technologies for STgenetics.

Hockett believes the veterinarian’s role in helping dairy producers who want to make the move to a beef-on-dairy program will be integral to producers’ long-term success. He adds that the sexed-and-beef model of production, in particular, will be the rule and not the exception in the process.

“I want you to ask yourself, ‘What can I be doing to impact these programs?’ because the dairies need your help,” Hockett told veterinarians attending the 2024 AABP Recent Graduate Conference in Knoxville, Tenn.

How The Model Works

Sexed-and-beef focuses on reducing heifer inventories by using sexed semen on a producer’s best heifers and cows while optimizing returns in the remaining cows by using beef genetics to make a high-quality beef-cross animal.

Hockett says most dairy producers have farms that fit one of two scenarios. 

Scenario One: Some farms want to maintain their current herd size and have a corresponding cull rate. Those farms need to plan their heifer matings to fulfill the needs to replace animals leaving the herd.

Scenario two: Some farms want to grow their cow herds. These are herds that can grow internally and optimize growth with planned matings.

“A lot of these farms are growing internally rather than going out on the open market and buying replacement heifers that they know nothing about and are a biosecurity issue to the farm,” Hockett says.

Knowing which of the two scenarios a farm is operating out of can help you work with producers to create a working framework for future decisions. 

During his presentation, Hockett outlined four key steps and take-home messages veterinarians can use to guide producers’ decisions for beef-on-dairy production.

Step #1: Know each dairy farm’s needed heifer number. 
Take-Home Message: Help producers make the right number of heifers and, in the process, stress health and reproduction programs that reduce the premature loss of heifers and cows.

Producers need to calculate the precise number of heifer calves that should be created each month on the farm, Hockett says. The process can be complicated, and he recommends partnering with a genetics company or other expert to determine and achieve the right number of heifers for each farm. 

“All of the genetics companies have technical service teams that can help you do this. It’s a service we offer, and it provides information that can help you add consultative value to your customers,” he says.

Understand that missing the needed heifer mark can be costly. You don’t want the farm to under- or over-produce heifers. Both scenarios impact revenue.

Hockett adds that the dairy industry needs to work on reducing the non-completion rate of heifers.

“Most of the losses are coming from health or reproduction challenges or death,” he says.

Only 74% of heifer calving events today yield a heifer that enters the lactating herd (Overton and Dhuyvetter, 2020). 

Factors keeping that percentage suppressed include things like:
•    Stillbirth risk, which is about 5.7%
•    Cull risk, which is about 10.2% by 13 months of age
•    Reproduction failure risk, which occurs in about 6.8% in breeding heifers
•    Culling risk, roughly 6.4% in pregnant heifers

Step #2: Make the right matings to generate the number of heifers required by the farm.
Take-Home Message: Maximize genetic progress and herd health by choosing top genetics for replacement creation.

“We can beat our head against the wall, trying to develop programs that lead to success, but if the genetics aren’t there to achieve that, you’re not going to end up making as much of an impact as you could if you had a more holistic view that included eliminating all the negative genetic traits that affect fertility,” Hockett says.

To accomplish the right matings, producers need to achieve the highest-value pregnancies. That’s no small task and involves:

•    identifying top animals in the herd to maximize genetic progress in heifer creation and drive profitability.

•    eliminating negative traits from the herd, and

•    creating high-value beef calves.

“The average cost to raise a heifer now is in the neighborhood of $2,000 to $4,000, depending on what is included in the cost calculation and the country under consideration,” he says. “Because of those costs, it’s more important than ever that producers target matings that drive profits.”

Hockett says if generational genetic progress is being made,  heifers tend to be the most elite genetic animals on the dairy farm, and they happen to be the most fertile as well. 

“Using sexed semen in those animals gives you a higher return on investment,” he says.

He adds that some producers do genomic testing of their full herd, and the resulting information helps them choose the best animals, whether heifer or first-lactation or second-lactation cows, to receive sexed semen.

“That will speed genetic progress, but it can be a really difficult process to manage,” he says. “The labor on the farm has to be elite to really make sure that they're using that semen in the right place.”

Hockett says a breeding plan can help technicians on the farm know what to do when they pull an animal for insemination, whether it gets sexed semen or beef semen. 

Step #3: Choose the right semen product to drive farms’ short- and long-term goals for profit. 
Take-Home Message: Use sex-sorted semen that optimizes genetic improvement, health, fertility and heifer ratio to reduce costs and expand beef-x-dairy revenues.

Hockett recommends identifying the top 40% or so animals in the herd to receive sexed semen. The remaining 60% should get beef semen. 

Semen purity is an important part of determining the number of heifer matings to make. 

“Semen purity is the percentage of desired sex of calves that result from offspring born from those inseminations,” he says. “All sexed semen is not the same. Different products can have different fertility and different purity. Using a higher purity product leads to a higher ratio of resulting heifers, less need for sexed semen inseminations and expands the number of beef matings one can make.”

Producers can purchase semen that is either female- or male-gender sorted semen. For example, an 88% pure semen for heifer ratio means producers using that semen in their cows can expect 88 heifers and 12 bulls.

Using genomics information to select top sires and then utilizing this on the top genetics of the herd will speed genetic progress.  

“An added benefit of genomic testing is that it can help you identify individuals that have inherited genes that result in abortions or poor health. If you identify heifers with those  undesirable haplotypes, breed them to beef to eliminate those genetics from the herd,” he says. “You should also look at the genomic results for sires you are considering to ensure you are not bringing negative mutations into the herd.” 

Step No. 4. Recognize and harness those things that bring value to the beef sire selected. 
Take-Home Message: Maximize the value of beef-x-dairy profit by using sires that stress fertility, price, growth, efficiency and yield. 

Everyone in the production chain has his or her own view on what makes a beef sire desirable, and it varies from the dairyman to the calf ranch to the backgrounder or feedlot.

Dairy producers want a cow to get pregnant, so fertility is the trait they value most. Further down the production chain, people are looking for calves with improved feed efficiency and growth. 

Old Inventory Is Gone

One misconception Hockett wants to put to rest is the idea that using beef sires will compromise conception rates. That’s not the case.

“Research shows that similar conception rates in Holstein dairy cows are found whether Angus or Holstein sires are used (McWhorter et al., 2020),” he says.

When beef-x-dairy came on the scene, the demand for beef semen went through the roof. Old bulls were not the problem as much as old inventory, he suspects.

That old inventory is long gone, and now most genetics companies struggle to keep up with demand. 

“Genetics companies aren't incentivized to keep millions of straws of beef semen in inventory. We've got to keep our inventories low, just like you all do,” he says.

Sidestep Discounts

One thing to discuss with producers is the calf-market discounts that are in the marketplace for various breeds, including Charolais, Limousin and Wagyu. In addition, heifers are routinely discounted $24.50 per hundredweight currently, he says. 

“The feed conversion rate definitely supports more favorable cost of gain on the steer side than a heifer,” he says.

Hockett says veterinarians can help producers establish the value of beef-on-dairy calves and continue that long-term in the industry.

“So when the beef herd comes back, which it should, we want to continue to see that there's value in these beef-dairy cross calves, because the revenues from them have become very important to your clients,” he says.