Beef Sires for the Dairy Herd

Every calf born on a dairy farm has a purpose, be that as a replacement female or in the beef market. We spoke to Stephen Connolly, ABP, about how dairy farmers can make the best decisions when it comes to beef sire selection for their herds.

“Sexed semen has given farmers the opportunity to ensure they have enough high genetic-merit replacements off of their best cows, and as a result they can use beef semen or stock bulls much earlier in the breeding season to produce quality calves for the beef market”.

By selectively using beef semen farmers can ensure the calves produced meet carcass requirements to ensure profitable calves, which in turn makes beef farmers more likely to return next year to purchase calves again.

It’s important when selecting bulls to consider where the calves will end up; are they going to be raised on farm? If selling calves what breed of calves does your customers want? Will they be sold farm-to-farm for fattening or will they be sold through a local mart? Are they destined for the export market? Understand- ing what kind of animals are desired in those different situations is vital and farmers must ensure the calves they produce are marketable and in strong demand. Angus and Hereford calves always do well, as do less widely used Limousin and Belgian blues.

Regardless of breed, it’s important is to select the best beef bulls within a breed that are balanced for calving and gestation, combined with good carcass traits. Stephen suggests selecting different bulls for maiden heifers, compared to second calvers and mature cows (3rd lactation plus).

“As a dairy farmer, you are well used to selecting a team of dairy bulls for your herd that best suit your breeding goals. For example when selecting dairy bulls for your heifers, this bull will be easier calving that the bulls used on the mature herd. You select beef bulls in the exact same way to produce the best quality calf possible.”

Overall you select the beef bull that best suits the cows lactation, size, previous calving difficult and month of calving (longer or shorter gestation to fit calving window), combined with the acceptable level of calving diffi- culty and the highest beef and carcass weight subindex within the DBI (Dairy Beef index).”

Stephen has outlined what to consider for beef bull selection for the dairy herd:

1. Decide on your breed or breeds - similarly to breeding dairy replacements or stock bulls, breed what your customer wants

2. Pick a team of bulls for reliability (not one bull across the herd)

3. Use bulls of different calving ease for heifers, second calvers and mature cows

4. Stage of the breeding season – use shorter gestation bulls towards the end

5. Use the DBI to help with selection – pay attention to the beef and carcass weight subindex (higher the better)

6. Choose bulls backed by good records – this goes for stock bulls as well as AI, need to be confident in the results you will get from each bull. More records = more confidence

7. “Dip your toe” – try a bull on a few animals and see what the progeny are like. If results are what you want then expand on this in 2024!

When using the DBI it’s important to drill down into the subindices. Two bulls with the same overall DBI figure could have very different figures for calving ease and carcass weight or conformation. Choose bulls with favourable sub-indices that compliment your herds breeding goals.

What are the benefits of a good dairy-beef calf crop?

1. More marketable/better performing calf

2. Repeat customers

3. Move calves off the farm quickly

4. Less stress, hassle and labour at a busy time of year

5. Add value to beef calves and milk sales

Let’s take the last point as an example of how beef bulls can add value during the breeding season: A farmer has a mating start date of the 1st of May, but a cow displays heat on the 24th April. If the farmer uses a friesian bull they will have to wait until the next cycle (15th of May) to inseminate which would lead to a calf due the 15th of February 2024. However they can inseminate at this heat with a limousin straw with a longer gestational length of 286 days,