10 minute read
Beef X Dairy: Vision & Reality
The influx of beef-on-dairy crosses offers the industry many benefits and a few challenges.
By Greg Henderson, reprinted with permission, Drovers
Advertisement
Dairymen are rapidly embracing the concept of using beef semen to freshen their cows and the resulting crossbred calves are proving both a valuable opportunity and a challenge for America’s beef industry.
Beef-on-dairy crosses as they are called, deliver on the vision that breed complimentary produces better feedlot performance and improved carcass quality while enhancing industry sustainability initiatives. Such gains are always welcome, but the growth of the beef-on-dairy sector may prove crucial going forward as the beef industry suffers the impact of a second mega-drought over the past decade.
Industry analysts are quick to acknowledge no hard data exists on the number of beef-on-dairy cattle that are part of today’s beef supply, but about three million head, plus or minus.
“I believe the number of beef-ondairy crosses in today’s market exceeds three million head,” says Dale Woerner, animal and food science professor at Texas Tech University. “And the number will continue to grow, especially as the beef cow inventory shrinks.”
Woerner and his colleagues at Texas Tech have collaborated with Cargill over the past three years on the Dairy Beef Accelerator, a program to better understand the opportunities of beefon-dairy. Researchers at Texas Tech have documented several benefits for producers, packers, consumers and the environment. Some highlights: • Compared to purebred dairy calves, beef-on-dairy calves can provide higher-quality beef products without impacting current milk production efficiencies. • Beef-on-dairy calves show greater feed efficiency (compared to purebred dairy calves), which lowers the environmental footprint associated with their production. • Increased feed efficiency significantly reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. • The practice benefits meat quality.
Beef-on-dairy delivers increased volumes of higher-grading beef carcasses, providing feedyard operators more access to value-based marketing opportunities as well as pass-back — beef-on-dairy calves are more valuable in the marketplace for dairies than purebred dairy calves.
“The beef and dairy industries have the opportunity to work together to produce even more efficient beef animals,” Woerner said. “Crossbreeding dairy cows to complementary beef sires can advance sustainability by reducing the environmental impact and improving profitability.”
A recent review of beef-on-dairy carcasses and meat characteristics in 2021 found that beef from these crossbreds compares favorably with traditional beef.
“Dairy-influenced beef has some advantages,” Woerner said. “Primarily tenderness, but also some flavor advantages, too. There’s improved overall palatability or eating qualities in the dairy/beef model over conventional beef.” Woerner said the beef-on-dairy carcasses will produce “more flavor associated with marbling” due to dairy-type animals typically producing high marbling scores.
While beef-on-dairy programs offer improved utilization of resources for producers and provides carcasses that better fit packer needs, the evolving sector brings some challenges to an industry not quite ready for the influx.
No one understands that better than Ty Lawrence, animal science professor at West Texas A&M, and
AMERICA’S ‘HETEROSIS HEADQUARTERS’
MONDAY - 12:30 PM JANUARY 30, 2023
AT THE RANCH NEAR DANNEBROG, NEB
Nebraska’s Largest Age-Advantaged SimAngus Sale!
170 PROFIT MAKING BULLS
95 Stout Age-Advantaged and 75 New Generation Yearling Bulls! 90 HIGHLY MATERNAL BRED HEIFERS
Featuring the “BEST” in Calving Ease Predictability Sires… TSN Architect J618 by GAR Home Town, -4.1 BW, Top 1% MARB - 174.7 $API & 99.6 $TI JC King of the Road 468H (PB), -3.5 BW, Top 2% BW, MILK, MARB and 176.8 $API 20 HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE YOUNG FALL PAIRS
With Proclamation, Eagle and King of the Road calves at side and everyone AI’d back to the great CLRS Homeland 327H sire!
100K Genomic Enhanced EPDs and Parentage Verification on Every Lot! WS PROCLAMATION E202
ASA #3254156 / PUREBRED HOMOZYGOUS BLACK & POLLED
The Breed’s #1 PB Sire!
Volume Discounts - Nationwide Delivery Assistance QUALITY + ELITE GENETICS = EXTRA VALUE!
EVERY LOT WAS BRED, BORN AND RAISED ON OUR RANCH!
BE473J AE910J
CED BW WW YW MCE MILK MWW DOC MARB REA API TI 13.2 0.3 99.9 145.5 9.3 38.7 88.7 18.9 0.55 0.92 166.3 104.3 20% 25% 2% 4% 5% 1% 1% 1% 2% 40% 3% 1%
Featuring the largest assembly of his sons and daughters to ever sell! 90 Powerful Sons and Daughters Featured! TD921J
SIMANGUS TM TWO-YEAR OLD APPROVAL x DIVIDEND - Top 5% CE and MARB EPDs!
WD172K
SIMANGUS TM TWO-YEAR OLD
PROCLAMATION x HOLY SMOKE IMPRESSIVE DATA with GENETIC POWER!
B208J
SIMANGUS TM TWO-YEAR OLD FUSION x LOADED UP - Great data, top 4% REA EPD!
YB927F
SIMANGUS TM YEARLING
EAGLE x COWBOY CUT ELITE Top 1% WW, YW, MWW EPDs and $TI!
SIMANGUS TM BRED HEIFER
PROCLAMATION x CONNEALY REVELATION Top 10% MILK EPD - AI’d to ARCHITECH!
SIMANGUS TM FALL PAIR
TESTAMENT x TRENDSETTER BC at SIDE - AI’d to CLRS HOMELAND 327H!
HETEROSIS...DON’T BE IN BUSINESS WITHOUT IT!
Request a Sale Book Today!
DAN LEO 308-750-0200 | 1146 7th AVENUE | DANNEBROG, NE 68831
director of the Beef Carcass Research Center.
“I receive calls from representatives of the packing industry weekly regarding issues they are seeing with these cattle,” Lawrence says. “In general terms, beef-on-dairy provides the beef industry some good, some bad and some very ugly results.”
The Good
Through in-plant research and observations, Lawrence and his team at BCRC say beef-on-dairy is working – the positive characteristics far out number the bad and the ugly.
For instance, traceability is much higher for beef-on-dairy crosses than cattle from the traditional beef sector, making those cattle easily eligible for source and age verification branded programs and for export. And because dairies traditionally do not brand their cattle, the hides are more valuable. Hide values, however, are significantly lower than a decade ago as leather has been replaced by polyester and nylon for many uses.
Observations by BCRC also confirm beef-on-dairy delivers on the carcass improvement promise. One improvement is the Angus stamp, which Lawrence says is independent of Certified Angus Beef. Because many beef-on-dairy calves are Angus-sired, the trim from those carcasses can be sold as Angus trim for hot dogs and ground beef that are branded as Angus.
Better dressed yield is another improvement. BCRC data found straight dairy carcass produces a dressed yield of 60%, beef-on-dairy at 62.8%, and traditional beef carcasses at 65%. For ribeyes the dairy average is 13.3-inches, the beef-on-dairy at 14.1-inches and the beef cattle average is 14.8-inches. The dairy crosses also improve muscle conformation and muscle-to-bone ratio over the straight bred dairy calves.
Marbling scores may represent an increase in value for some cattle feeders. That’s because while overall marbling scores are “on a par” with straight dairy cattle, the crosses produce more CAB carcasses.
“Historically, one-third of Prime carcasses came from dairy,” Lawrence says. “So dairy genetics produce marbling, but when we cross them with Angus we have an opportunity for those carcasses to qualify for CAB.”
A majority of the Angus-sired dairy steers will qualify for CAB on a live basis, and “80% to 95% of the beefon-dairy crosses will grade Choice or better, with 25% to 45% reaching CAB,” Lawrence says.
The Bad
Some of these dairy animals,
S
BAR S RANCH ANNUAL PRODUCTION SALE Saturday, March 11th, 2023 • Paradise, KS
SELLING YEARLING AND 2 YR OLD ANGUS, RED ANGUS AND CHAROLAIS BULLS REGISTERED AND COMMERCIAL FEMALES Ken & Pat Stielow | bars@gorhamtel.com | 785-483-9733 David & Stephanie Dickerson | barsranch2@hotmail.com | 785-483-1454
Bill Mahanay Jaden Miller Curt Glaser Landon Shaw Gunnar Hays
NMLS# 1305196 NMLS# 2047119 NMLS# 740399 NMLS# 1771945 NMLS# 1609943
WE KNOW AG.
Local Loan Decisions Fast and Efficient Competitive Rates firstbankkansas.com Call or visit us to discuss your operation financing needs.
Salina 235 S Santa Fe........................................785.825.2211 2860 S 9th ...............................................785.825.2211 Ellsworth 1500 Aylward...........................................785.472.5588 McPherson 1301 N Main ............................................620.241.8111 Abilene 1410 N Buckeye ......................................785.263.4778 Lindsborg 118 N Main...............................................785.227.3344 Hutchinson 1600 E 17th .............................................620.694.4395
NMLS# 528128
March 3, 2023 4 p.m. CST
Stanley Stout Center
SELLING 40 FEED-EFFICIENCY TESTED BULLS 20 Angus, 10 Simmental and 10 Hereford 35 FEMALES 15 Fall-Bred Cows and 20 Commercial Heifers 3 AQHA RANCH PERFORMANCE HORSES
K-STATE PUREBRED BEEF UNIT
2200 Denison Avenue • Manhattan, KS 66502 asi.ksu.edu/bullsale •bullsale@ksu.edu Shane Werk, KSU PBU Manager - 785.565.1881 Chris Mullinix - 316.323.4994 Jason Warner - 308-962-4265 regardless of whether they are a cross or a straight bred, arrive at harvest with an intact testicle,” Lawrence says. “Most are banded in the first week or so, and at a rate that I have yet to document, one testicle is in the sack and is removed, while one testicle is in the belly and that animal does not know he’s not supposed to be a bull.”
Such mistakes lead to an increased rate of “bulling” and increased rates of dark cutters. Dairy crosses will also produce more subcutaneous fat than the straightbred dairy animal, necessitating additional fabrication of fat trim by the packer.
“A Holstein or a Jersey will have nine pounds of muscle for every pound of fabrication trim,” Lawrence says. “The average beef animal has five pounds of muscle for every pound of fabrication fat trim and the crosses will be similar.”
BCRC also found only 20% of the beef-on-dairy crosses displayed healthy, normal looking lungs. “That means 80% had something going on,” Lawrence says.
A significant concern for packers with beef-on-dairy crosses is the possibility of lactating heifers, which is more common among the Jersey crosses. Milk that spills on a carcass in a packing plant must be treated the same as fecal matter, meaning that it can’t be washed off—it has to be trimmed off.
In short, liver abscesses. Across the beef industry liver abscesses are a significant concern, a defect Lawrence says results in a $420 million industry loss over the 27.3 million animals harvested last year.
Compared with standard beef cattle and traditional dairy cattle, however, the beef-on-dairy crosses “stick out as a problem,” Lawrence says. The beef-on-dairy crosses saw 68% of livers condemned due to abscesses in observations by BCRC.
Last year the BCRC examined 271,436 carcasses, finding live abscesses in 26% of beef steers, 21% of beef heifers, 20% of Mexican cattle, 29% of Holsteins and the eye-popping 68% of beef-on-dairy. The liver itself is only worth $8, but the increasing severity of the abscesses can result in the loss of other saleable meat products such as skirt steaks. Lawrence says liver abscesses—because they are active infections—reduce the animal’s feed conversion, reduces carcass weights, reduces marbling scores and decreases ribeye area.
“That’s a lot of growth negatives that come with those more severe liver abscesses,” Lawrence said. “This is a problem and we as an industry have got to fix it.”
FUNCTIONAL RELIABLE PRACTICAL
Programs powered by hard-working, maternally efficient cowherds. With 30+ years of selection pressure for mothering ability and udder quality... traits measured even when an EPD doesn’t yet exist.
FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023
12:30pm cst | MAPLE HILL | KANSAS
100 18-MONTH-OLD BULLS Developed on grass with limited supplementation 20 SPRING YEARLING BULLS ET-Flush brothers by Benchmark, Guarantee and Plus One
Barrett Cattle Gene, Anna, Payden & Ella Barrett Grantville, Kansas Gene: 785.224.8509 | Payden: 785.318.2004 anna@barrettcattle.com | BarrettCattle.com Mill Brae Ranch Mark, Janice & Taylor Nikkel Maple Hill, Kansas Mark: 785.256.3072 | Taylor: 785.207.2040 millbrae.ranch@gmail.com | MillBraeRanch.com
