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By Ariana Schumacher Agweek

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Raising beef on dairy-crossed cattle is starting to have a significant impact on the beef market.

For the past five to six years, beef on dairy cattle have become more common in the industry. In 2024, it’s expected that 3.2 million beef-on-dairy crosses will be entering the market. In 2026 that number is estimated to be at 5 million to 6 million. This was the main topic of discussion during the I-29 Moo University on March 21, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“If we get to the numbers CattleFax projects, which is 5 to 6 million head in 2026, that would be about 15% of the fed cattle beef market, so it’s pretty substantial,” said Ken Odde, professor emeritus, Kansas State University.

Lyle Perman

Beef breeds most used in these crossbred cattle include Angus, Charolais, Simmental and Limousin. Holstein is the most commonly used dairy breed, followed by Jersey.

“What we are really doing is we are replacing the dairy steer with a beef-on-dairy steer because that dairy steer has been going to the beef world, historically,” Odde said.

“Now what has happened is we are creating more value by adding that beef genetics to that dairy animal.”

This is due to semen availability.

“Not surprising, the popular beef breeds tend to mirror semen availability in the beef side, and I think that’s one of the transitions we are starting to see,” said Bob Weaber, professor and department head at Kansas State University. “Historically,

Angus has had a large portion of this market share and part of that is driven by Angus sire semen availability in the market space. But there’s a growing emphasis on some of the continental breeds and continental Angus crossbred bulls or hybrid bulls.”

Holstein bull calves tend to be of less value in the beef cattle markets. By raising beef-on-dairy cattle, producers can maximize their cattle profits.

“What’s producers are switching to beef-ondairy because they can produce a higher value calf and capture more money from the sales of that calf,” Odde said.

Holstein meat is known for good marbling but a flat loin area. By adding beef genetics, they are improving the meat quality.

“So, what we are doing is, by adding the beef genetics, we are both increasing growth, we are increasing feed efficiency or improving feed efficiency, but we are also producing a carcass that is more desirable to the beef industry,” Odde said.

When making genetic selections for these crossbred cattle, producers are breeding for calving ease direct, carcass weight, marbling and rib eye area.

“We don’t want to back marbling up, so making sure that we’ve got acceptable levels of marbling score to make sure that we have a high quality product,” Weaber said. “Then primarily rib-eye area, making sure we get cattle with sufficient ribeye shape that they don’t get the dairy discount, so they don’t get the confirmational discount at the packing plant that a typical dairy calf would have.”

This meat is entering the beef markets.

“The meat from these beef on dairy calves is marketed into more traditional beef markets, whereas straight Holstein beef in the past was often kind of relegated to very specific, a little bit narrower market segment,” said Derrell Peel, livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University.

While there may be more beef-ondairy cattle entering the marketplace, the number of cattle in the beef markets have not significantly increased.

“There are some differences because of the size of those animals, the dressing percentage is a little different, so we are probably changing the overall tonnage of beef slightly, but really, it’s the same number of animals. It’s just that we are utilizing them differently,” Peel said.

A lot of the beef-on-dairy calves are getting marketed at fairly light weights, which is typical of how dairy calves are marketed.

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“We don’t market beef cattle at that same level most of the time,” Peel said. “We are seeing some extremely strong prices for these dairy calves, some of them get marketed as one-to-five-day old bull beef-on-dairy cross calves, and these calves are bringing $700 to $800 or more at that level, which is pretty surprising. We don’t market beef cattle almost never that way, so there’s really no comparison at that level.”

But, once the crosses are marketed off a feedlot, they are sold with the traditional beef cattle, bringing in about the same prices as regular beef cattle.

“We are producing an animal that is much more in demand for the beef industry,” Odde said.

There are several things that dairy producers need to keep in mind when looking to incorporate beefon-dairy on their operations.

“They need to approach this as a quality and value-added product. So not only do we have to make genetic considerations in terms of what bulls we are going to use, we’ve got to have that on the backside of a gender-selected heifer program that frees up the mating opportunities,” said Weaber.

“Obviously the beef-on-dairy calves is kind of coming as a residual to what we are doing with heifer development on the dairy side,” Peel said. “So the ability to use sexed semen to target the heifers that you need then frees up the remaining cows to be used with the beef semen and produce these crossbred calves.”