The Moos Room™

00;00;59;22 - 00;01;28;17
Brad
And welcome to the Moves Room, Brad Heins today. Emily is gone for a little bit. Oh, traveling. I don't know, she's been at the Capitol a few days. She's all over the place. So I'm here and really wanted to talk about some subjects that are pretty popular right now. So we are going to talk about beef and dairy crossbreeding in a two part series.

00;01;28;17 - 00;02;05;22
Brad
So this week we're going to talk a little bit about beef and dairy. What's happening in the market kind of review some semen sales, what dairy farmers are using on their animals. And then talk about a couple research studies that have just come out about beef on dairy, and what we're learning about what's happening in the industry the next week, we're going to get into our research here at Minnesota, where we just completed a beef and dairy study on using five different breeds, and we've collected all of the carcass data.

00;02;05;24 - 00;02;32;06
Brad
So we're going to talk about that and what we found. And it's kind of interesting. I was quite excited finish that research. And I wanted to share a little bit about what we've done from a beef on dairy and where we're going first, obviously talk a little bit about beef on dairy and how it's shaping the beef production.

00;02;32;13 - 00;03;11;23
Brad
And in the beef world, actually, a new report came out in January that showed the beef inventory numbers the lowest since 1950s. So the beef herd has not rebounded and probably won't for the foreseeable future. And the cattle numbers are at the lowest. So despite that, the beef on dairy trend is kind of reshaping both the beef and the dairy industries with the use of beef semen in dairy cows to produce cross-bred calves that have a higher market value than the dairy calves do.

00;03;11;25 - 00;03;44;09
Brad
But the impact on US beef production is quite minimal, actually, and it doesn't really affect total cattle numbers in the end. So let's talk about some of those things. So beef on dairy growth. If you go back to recent reports in 2022. So just a couple of years ago beef and dairy crossbred they accounted for about 7% of US cattle slaughter.

00;03;44;12 - 00;04;18;20
Brad
So little over 2 million head. And that's projected to reach 15% by 2026. So in just two years from now, be fund dairy will be about 15% of the market. And that's quite significant, albeit it's growing but slowly. But it will rapidly increase here. But it doesn't really increase the total cattle count. Now why is that. Well, that's because these beef on dairy cross breads are just replacing the dairy steers that used to enter into the beef market.

00;04;18;20 - 00;04;45;12
Brad
Remember a while ago, farmers used conventional semen, and we had a lot of Holstein steers and dairy cross breads, or I should say dairy purebred dairy steers go into the market. Well, these beef on dairies, they're just replacing those. There's been a lot less Holstein steers in the market. So these beef on dairies are replacing a lot of dairy steers.

00;04;45;14 - 00;05;17;13
Brad
So the overall impact to the beef market is modest. And obviously there's going to be some increase, but not as much as what we think because of just replacing those dairy steers. So why are farmers interested in beef on dairy crossbreeding? Well, a few years ago I did some research kind of looking into this, and a lot of the farms were interested in beef on dairy because it adds value to their calves, purebred dairy animals.

00;05;17;19 - 00;05;43;11
Brad
The calves are worth less than a beef and dairy crossbred. They're kind of all over the board. When we started here in Morris, you could get maybe $125 for those beef on dairy. The purebred dairy were 50 to 75. And then all of a sudden it skyrocketed where we were getting 400 for our beef on dairy crosses. And that was like, wow, that was impressive.

00;05;43;13 - 00;06;12;24
Brad
And that's just gone up from there. At some point, we were getting $850 for our beef on dairy Cross calves. The just our last calving period. I think we were getting about $700 for beef on dairy cross calves at a week of age. And our purebred dairy animals, which we still have. Some were about $325, so more than double for the beef and dairy crossbred calves.

00;06;12;24 - 00;06;41;26
Brad
So it's adding value to those calves for farmers. Obviously there was the interest because many farms had too many replacement heifers. Us included too many heifers. So how do you combat heifer numbers? Well, breed your cows re dairy animals to beef and that will help reduce your replacement numbers. You can get increased profitability for those animals in the marketplace by using beef on dairy.

00;06;41;27 - 00;07;14;22
Brad
Cavani's. Obviously some of the beef breeds are very good at Cavani's. And farmers were using those bulls on their dairy animals. There was a thought to get a consistent end product in some of those beef and dairy crosses. I think that's certainly debatable whether the product is still consistent enough, like you see in the true beef market, but only time will tell as we we learn more research, learn more about having to feed these animals.

00;07;14;24 - 00;07;42;02
Brad
And there's really minimal cost difference in beef versus dairy semen. Yes, it can be last less than semen, but a lot of farmers, a lot of dairy farmers are getting beef, semen at quite a low cost for use on on their animals. So really, in the end, the widespread use of AI and sexy semen has made beef and dairy crossbreeding more practical.

00;07;42;02 - 00;08;19;17
Brad
And a lot of people have been experimenting with that and have shown that these cross breads are better from a marketability standpoint. So what does it do to beef production? Well, there's probably a composition shift in the market. Obviously there's more beef on dairy crossbred, so there's fewer traditional purebred dairy steers on the market. Now these beef on dairy cattle probably have better carcass traits compared to a traditional dairy steer, which leads to higher dressing percentages and higher premium grade meat.

00;08;19;17 - 00;08;49;25
Brad
So USDA choice USDA prime you can get cab or certified Angus beef or lots of different branded beef programs out there that certainly could enhance the demand for these animals. And there's lots of adjustments on these beef on dairy animals. And it's really due to their yield and efficiency. They can be very efficient at converting feed into meat and getting a high quality carcass.

00;08;49;25 - 00;09;13;14
Brad
What about the economic implications for dairy farmers? Probably the biggest thing that a dairy farmer will see is higher calf prices, and it really boosts their profit ability without increasing herd size. So you can, if you get more for your calves that are weak of age, that increases profitability. Really fast, especially if you're selling a lot of animals.

00;09;13;19 - 00;09;44;07
Brad
For us, we sell 150 per calving season, maybe 300 calves per year from our 300 cow dairy that are beef and dairy crosses times $700 a calf. That's a lot of money. That's real money. That we wouldn't have realized had they just been purebred dairy animals. But there's lots of other economic implications that come into this. Profits are probably the big things with some of the branded beef programs.

00;09;44;07 - 00;10;14;06
Brad
Some of the smaller farms who rely on public auctions or livestock auctions to sell their beef on dairy are probably more susceptible to price volatility. So you're at the whim of the market, and if you sell calves one week, you might not do as well as what you do the next week. So always keeping an eye on the livestock markets are pretty important for some of those farms that are selling those calves.

00;10;14;08 - 00;10;44;20
Brad
But in the end, beef on dairy is here to stay. It's going to continue to grow. We're only going to see that growth increase quite rapidly within the next few years. It obviously will help improve the meat quality. The calf value is is an important thing and to help improve profitability on those dairy farms. So let's talk a little bit about selection of reeds first before we get into some of these research studies.

00;10;44;21 - 00;11;12;09
Brad
Now a lot of people there's a lot of opinions out there. Of course I have mine as well. As far as what animals or what breeds you should use on your dairy animals. Well, probably the biggest thing is you want to use top bulls from their respective breeds. That's probably the biggest consideration that I would tell you is use the top bulls.

00;11;12;09 - 00;11;33;07
Brad
You should always use the top bulls. Now here's Brad's quote. Black may be good, but it might not be the answer. Some people won't like it when I say that, because everybody has used Angus. And we'll talk about semen numbers here in a second. But a lot of people have jumped on the Angus bandwagon for lots of good reasons.

00;11;33;07 - 00;11;51;16
Brad
And Angus is a great breed and a great carcass breed. But I'm not sure that it's the answer. And the way in next week we'll talk about what we saw in some of our breeds. Obviously you want a calf that looks like a beef animal. Probably going to do better in the feedlot. Do you better from a carcass characteristic.

00;11;51;16 - 00;12;17;03
Brad
If it looks a little bit more beefy than dairy, you want some breeds that will maximize growth. Obviously, that's kind of a feedlot mentality is trying to maximize growth on these animals, and you want to be able to understand the beef markets and how these breeds play into those different beef markets. Well, let's look at a few examples of of some breeds that kind of gone through here.

00;12;17;05 - 00;12;40;11
Brad
Listed some strengths, some good things about these different breeds. If you look at it from a birth weight perspective, Angus would have the lowest birth weight out of numerous dairy breeds. Comparing Chala, galva, Hereford, Limousin and Simmental Angus, whether they're Black Angus or red Angus would definitely have the lowest birth weight and they would have the highest marbling score.

00;12;40;15 - 00;13;08;01
Brad
So you're going to get more marbling with an Angus animal than you probably are with something like Sharla Galva Limousin. But the rib eyes are going to be smaller on an Angus, red Angus black Angus by maybe one square inch. The animals with a big rib eye area going to be Sharla, Limousin, Simmental. Those are going to have the largest rib eye areas, so there's always this difference.

00;13;08;01 - 00;13;37;08
Brad
Do you select for low birth weight, high marbling or do you want to go for big rib eyes? There's kind of a difference. Fat thickness Angus animals are going to have a little more fat thickness compared to the other breeds. .65 back fat inches. Whereas if you have a Simmental or Sharla, you're going to have less back fat and that goes into the marbling score.

00;13;37;08 - 00;14;05;18
Brad
So more fat, a little bit more marbling on the Angus carcass weight, they're all going to be quite similar. Maybe the Sharla is going to be a little bit bigger from a carcass standpoint than an Angus, but most of these breeds do quite well from a carcass standpoint. So what are some of the positives about these different breeds that people want to talk about?

00;14;05;20 - 00;14;31;13
Brad
Well, Angus. So they're small framed high quality carcass. They're well marbled. They're naturally polled. So that's always a good thing. So we don't have to disband these animals or horned them. And that's one thing that you've heard from some feedlots is they don't like to dispose of these animals. So that's another plus for using the Angus. And they're a vigorous breed.

00;14;31;13 - 00;15;01;01
Brad
So very growth. We do well in the feedlot. So there's lots of positives for Angus. What about Sharla. Sharla is good growth heavy muscling in the round in the loin. So lots of muscle member those big rib eyes from the Sharla good Kevin these large framed animals and they fit well into any system. Now when you cross it with the dairy animal obviously Sharla is a white breed.

00;15;01;04 - 00;15;23;22
Brad
You're not going to get black animals. It doesn't matter if you cross it with the Holstein, you're going to get somewhere in the middle of this mousey gray type animal. Is what you typically see when you use Sharla in a beef and dairy crossing system. Herford they're docile, they're easy handling. Good calving is on those animals. They're have superior foraging ability.

00;15;23;22 - 00;15;56;26
Brad
They're bigger, they're hardy. They're fast growing cattle with good beef quality. Obviously red breed, but they have good growth, adequate marbling. Now Limousin, Limousin are early maturing and have a lot of lean beef on them. Good rib eyes. They're high yield of salable meat. So they're kind of known as that carcass breed. And they're excellent at feed efficiency, albeit a little bit smaller than maybe some of the other breeds.

00;15;56;29 - 00;16;30;23
Brad
And Simmental excellent feed conversion and efficiency. Good is and good growth rates and the Simmental marble as well. Another interesting breed that I have is Galvao. Some people have used Galvao a lot in the US. They're early maturing, excellent temperament. They have high cut out yields, so large ribeye areas, so getting bigger ribeyes they're good birth weight on the calves, so low birth weight and they're known as a lean breed lean from a fat perspective.

00;16;30;23 - 00;16;51;04
Brad
So there's lots of good breeds. There's if you think about it from in Europe they use a lot of other breeds on beef, on dairy. And some of you have maybe have used these, you've maybe heard about them. One is Belgian Blue that gets used a lot in Europe from a beef on dairy. They're very high muscle breeds, lean breeds, double muscled.

00;16;51;06 - 00;17;22;20
Brad
Charlie Excellence is another one. Highly muscled, double muscled breed. And some I've used, I've been to some farms where they're using a breed called inner 95, and that's across between Chala, Limousin, Mane, Anjou and blond d'Aquitaine. So there's a lot of other breeds that can be used on beef, on Dairy Crossing. And like I said, does it always have to be Angus?

00;17;22;22 - 00;17;56;05
Brad
Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on what your situation is. So let's talk about semen. Use some new reports. Just came out from the National Association of Animal Breeders here in the US that talks about domestic semen usage for dairy and beef breeds, and it reveals some interesting things. Let's say. So let's talk about domestic dairy semen use first. And these are from 2023 statistics.

00;17;56;05 - 00;18;28;10
Brad
So the 2024 ones aren't quite available. But this gives you a pretty good idea. It's only a year old Holstein domestic dairy. Semen usage in the US was about 12.4 million units, and then hadn't changed much from 2022, it's probably down quite considerably, down 5 million units from 2018. But I also pulled some statistics from 1980. So 40 years ago, we're about the same as what we are today.

00;18;28;11 - 00;19;00;03
Brad
12 million units of Holstein semen in 1980 and about 12,000,000 in 2023. Now Jersey, this is pure red jersey, about 2.2 million units of semen that's been going down quite considerably. In 2018 it was 3.2 million. So down over a million units in just five years. And the Jersey breed and a lot of that had to do with the value of those Jersey bull calves, purebred Jersey calves being worth nothing or very little.

00;19;00;06 - 00;19;33;15
Brad
In 1980, we only used a half a million units of Jersey semen. So Jersey wasn't quite as popular in the 1980s, and so that breed has increased quite a bit. Brown Swiss were at about 57,000 units of semen. That's been going down quite a bit in 1980, 250,000. In the 2018 2019, about 80 to 90,000 units. So we've been dropping a lot in brown Swiss, Ayrshire, about 22,000 units of semen that's been going down the high 1981.

00;19;33;15 - 00;20;04;10
Brad
That will surprise you or maybe not surprise you. Guernsey. Only 12,000 units of Guernsey semen was used domestically in the US in 2013. If you go back to 1980 it was 326,000. That's a lot. That is a huge drop in 40 years in just one breed. And it's quite alarming, quite alarming that Guernsey usage has, dropped a lot, on that breed.

00;20;04;10 - 00;20;33;00
Brad
But just 12,000 units, some of the other ones are pretty comparable. Milking Shorthorn, about 88,000. Red and white has been a lot. So you have lots of red and white semen, about 200,000 units in 2023. Now that's the dairy semen part. Well what about beef now beef. This is the interesting thing. About 4.7 million units of Angus semen were used domestically.

00;20;33;00 - 00;20;59;00
Brad
That's in the US. This is not export in 2023. And that's been going up quite considerably. In 2018 it was just 2.4 million. So it's gone up 2 million units in just five years. That's a huge jump in Angus semen Simmental was the second largest at about 1.1 million units of semen crossbred. So lots of crossbred beef bulls there.

00;20;59;01 - 00;21;36;10
Brad
They're about 856,000. Charlotte 680,000 units. So they're the fourth if you count the crossbred purebred by a purebred standpoint, the third most popular breed. So you got Angus Simmental Charlie, three most popular purebred breeds for use in beef semen domestically. And this isn't necessarily just crossing on dairy animals. They're obviously accounting for the purebred beef market as well, but it kind of gives you an indication about what breeds people are using.

00;21;36;12 - 00;22;09;06
Brad
Limousin about 311,000 units of semen, Wagyu, 212,000 units of semen in 2023. So Wagyu has seen an increase in popularity in just five years. In 2018, they were 28,000 units of semen and now over 200,000. That is no doubt coming from beef and dairy. Crossing Wagyu semen has increased because of that. Red Angus, about 120,000 pulled Herford about 84,000.

00;22;09;06 - 00;22;43;25
Brad
And there's some other breeds that are used around 3 to 5000 units. Brahma Shorthorn gloves at 3200, meaning you about 3200 units. Brangus some senna pole, knee, was used quite heavily many years ago, but not so much today. One of the other drastic decreases was Herford 1980s, 190,000 units of semen, and now about 84,000. So they've increased or decreased 50%.

00;22;43;27 - 00;23;17;25
Brad
Most of the other breeds have increased a lot over time. Angus, Simmental, Charlie and Limousin have increased a lot in common usage. Herford has kind of gone down. So that's kind of domestically what's going on in semen sales. Obviously this is ie semen, not bulls only domestically. So Angus Simmental or Charlie Limousin Wagyu are the top five breed for domestic beef semen usage here in the US, which is interesting.

00;23;18;01 - 00;23;44;21
Brad
That's quite interesting to to see that those are the breeds that people are using and those are the breeds that are are being used in beef and Dairy Crossing as well. So let's talk about a couple studies that have just came out recently that kind of describe some things going on in the beef and dairy world. The first one was a study from Megan Lorber and Paul Frisky at the University of Wisconsin.

00;23;44;21 - 00;24;06;09
Brad
And they were really their goal was to look at different semen usage types. So they looked at beef, conventional dairy, sex dairy in Holstein, in Jersey, animals in the US. And we're not going to talk about the conventional dairy or semen, but, I wanted to hit on some of the beef and dairy that they had certainly talked about.

00;24;06;09 - 00;24;32;24
Brad
So that was kind of a secondary goal of theirs was to look at the prevalence of beef breed sires used to produce these beef on dairy crosses. So this study was done from 2019 to 2021. So it's a few years old but not bad. They looked at Holstein animals, so they had over 8 million contaminations from Holstein animals across almost 10,000 herds here in the US Jersey.

00;24;32;24 - 00;25;08;22
Brad
They had a 435,000 insemination across 2800 herds here in the US. So this dataset covers about 42% of the total dairy cows in the US, about 40% of the licensed dairy herds. So what did they find as far as semen usage in these animals? Well, Holstein beef semen increased from 18 to 26%, so 8% increase. And in beef semen in jerseys, it grew even more.

00;25;08;25 - 00;25;49;15
Brad
Beef semen grew from 11% to 21%. In these animals. Jersey grew quite a bit in semen usage, up to 30% as well. So jersey 30%. Semen and beef semen 21%. Here are some interesting things learned about beef semen usage. So it increased with older cows and service number. So cows that were older tended to get beef, semen, and cows that hadn't been bred multiple times tended to have more usage of beef semen.

00;25;49;15 - 00;26;32;29
Brad
So really it indicated that it was being used in older cows and lower fertility cows. In this study, the top four breeds used for Holstein were Angus, Limousin, Simmental and crossbred beef. Angus was about 50% for jerseys. It was Angus top 39% then Limousin, Simmental and crossbred B. So in 4 or 5 years ago most people were using Angus, Limousin and Simmental, so the larger herds tended to adopt semen and beef semen at higher rates than the smaller herds, whereas the larger herds probably saw the biggest increase in beef semen usage.

00;26;33;02 - 00;27;09;06
Brad
Up to almost 32% of the larger herds using beef semen farms with higher repro performance. So these are preg rates greater than 20% were more likely to use beef semen strategies. So if you had higher fertility in your cows, you tended to use more beef semen, obviously, to try and control your heifer replacements. And the smaller herds often sold their beef on dairy crossbred calves at public auctions, whereas larger operations tended to have more marketing channels to sell their beef on dairy cross calves.

00;27;09;09 - 00;27;40;02
Brad
So this study concluded that sex, semen and beef use is growing, and it still continues to grow today. Obviously in the larger herds because of more reproductive efficiency and economies of scale. And obviously, the authors concluded where they said that we need to provide dairy farmers with marketing access and more resources for beef and dairy crossbred calves, because that is the critical part to improving profitability in these farms.

00;27;40;05 - 00;28;10;21
Brad
So our last study that I wanted to discuss today came out just last year. It was a study done at Penn State University that looked at the impact of sire, breed and feedlot performance on carcass characteristics. So these were just looking at the feedlot through the feeding period of these animals. And so they wanted to investigate how these different sire breed affect many different traits.

00;28;10;28 - 00;28;43;28
Brad
So I had about 262 steers. They were sired by seven beef breeds. So there was Angus, Chala, Limousin, Herford, Red Angus, Simmental and Wagyu and they were all out of Holstein dams. So these are 50% beef, 50% dairy only out of Holstein. So what did the group at Penn State find? Well, they found that Angus Shirley and Simmental sired steers had higher average daily gain than the other breeds.

00;28;43;28 - 00;29;22;08
Brad
So let's look at what were these average daily gains in the feedlot? Angus 3.88 pounds. Charlie 3.81. So again Charlie did quite well. Simmental 3.70. Herford was fourth, 3.66 pounds per day, Red Angus 3.57, Limousin 3.42 and the lowest average daily gain was Wagyu 3.06 pounds per day. So all of these steers grew really well over 3 pounds a day, so they were really growth.

00;29;22;08 - 00;29;55;28
Brad
The animals. However, the Wagyu steers had 5 to 26 more days on feed compared to the other breeds, which probably made them less efficient. And the Angus and the Charlie steers were on feed about three weeks less than the Limousin steers. So three weeks can be a lot from a profitability standpoint of 321 days less feed times hundreds of animals that you have that can add up quite considerably.

00;29;56;01 - 00;30;31;25
Brad
And I think that's what it's all going to come down to at some point, is really profitability. So what about carcass characteristics in these animals? The red Angus, the Angus and the Charlie had highest marbling scores, which really aligned with choice or better in the quality grades. Simmental and Limousin had the lowest marbling scores, so it really suggested that the Angus, the Red Angus and the Charlie genetics improve the beef quality and probably the marketability of these animals.

00;30;31;25 - 00;31;08;18
Brad
They also collected data on tenderness, lower tenderness or lower I should say shear force scores indicated less force to cut the meat, so lower scores here were more tender. The most tender steaks were Limousin, Herford and Angus. The least tender was Simmental. So you can see there's lots of differences even though you get pretty good growth rates. So the Limousin had one of the lowest growth rates but the most one of the most tender steaks Hereford as well.

00;31;08;18 - 00;31;39;29
Brad
So the Angus Red Angus Charlotte cattle probably produced more desirable marbled beef. But the Angus, Limousin and Herford had more tender and the Simmental didn't do as great. So lots of differences between these different breeds that you can see. So what about economically? Angus and Charlotte probably had the best balance for growth, marbling and feed efficiency. The Wagyu and the Limousin just had more days on feed, so it made them less efficient and probably less profitable.

00;31;40;02 - 00;32;09;22
Brad
And the Simmental had good growth. But lower marbling and less tender beef. In conclusion, this is what their takeaway was for dairy farmers using this semen. And then you want to maximize value, meat quality and what should you do? So if you want fast growing and feed efficient animals, you should use Angus, Sharley and Simmental because you get higher average daily gain and less time on feed if you want highest marbling and quality grades.

00;32;09;25 - 00;32;35;17
Brad
Obviously the Angus breeds black Angus, Red Angus and Charlotte here because they have higher marbling scores and more choice beef, the most tender meat Limousin and Angus and Hurford the most efficient in the feedlot. Angus and Charlie and probably the least recommended for efficiency based on this study was Wagyu and Limousin. Just because they have more time on feed and they have the slowest growth.

00;32;35;20 - 00;33;13;10
Brad
So in the end, this study concluded that Angus Sharley and Red Angus were probably the best sire breeds for beef on dairy crossing on Holsteins, Simmental had pretty good growth, but maybe not quite as good in the carcass, which as dairy farmers, we tend not to think about the carcass traits afterwards. And I think we we need to start doing that and looking at and thinking about trying to use good beef breeds and beef bulls that improve the carcass characteristics on a Holstein or purebred dairy animal.

00;33;13;12 - 00;33;50;02
Brad
So in the end, this study really reinforced the importance of sire selection and how genetics actually does play quite a big role in beef and dairy crossing. I think it will only continue to play a bigger role in some of these crossbreeding programs into the future, but again, use good genetics, good bulls, and I will talk about some of that next week when we talk about a couple of the studies that we've done here at Minnesota on some feeding of calves, you know what to do.

00;33;50;04 - 00;34;11;02
Brad
A lot of these studies that come out now, it's all about the feedlot. What can we do in the feedlot? Well, I'm interested in what can we do as calves as well on these animals. So I've done some calf studies also. I did a full life study. We fed them as calves and then into the feedlot and collected carcass data.

00;34;11;05 - 00;34;38;07
Brad
And we just recently finished that study. And I want to talk about that and then talk about where we're going on beef and dairy crossing in our herd, what bulls we're using right now, how I select bulls for use in beef on dairy, and what kind of I've learned over the last few years. So hopefully today you've gained a little bit of insight about what's happening in the beef on dairy world.

00;34;38;09 - 00;35;04;15
Brad
What is being used out there for beef genetics, why it might be used, and what farmers are thinking about from a beef and dairy standpoint. So with that, I think we'll wrap up today. And if you have any comments, questions, or scathing rebuttals, feel free to contact us at the Moos room. That's almos r o m at Umkc edu or visit us on the web.

00;35;04;15 - 00;35;20;00
Brad
But University of Minnesota Extension or my self at West Central Research and Outreach Center on the web with that. Hope you have a good day. Thanks for listening. But eat.