Around 33 million cattle are harvested annually for beef in the United States, with 20% of those animals originating in the dairy industry. A recent shift has seen the majority of that 20% being dairy cross beef animals, as opposed to the purebred dairy animals such as Holstein steers that it used to be.
Two industry experts spoke about this trend at ONE, hosted by Alltech in Kentucky earlier this year. Both Dr Dale Woerner from the department of animal and food sciences at Texas Tech University and Mike de Groot, a founding partner and director of TD Beef, believe there is huge potential for the dairy cross beef animal.
“It isn’t a new concept for beef to originate from dairy cows,” Woerner says.
“But it is new to see so many animals coming from dairy crossed with beef rather than pure dairy breeds and we’ve seen a huge shift in a short timeframe.”
He highlighted the notable changes in semen sales in the US, with more beef semen being used and less dairy. The trend was kicked off in 2017 when the market saw value slashed for Holstein steers.
“Beef packers decided to discount Holstein steers for a variety of reasons, as these animals weren’t producing the same as traditional beef, which resulted in little to no value for that by-product,” Woerner says.
“So those economic signals certainly influenced dairy farmers to do something different and that’s the drastic shift in the semen sales with the upturn of beef semen on dairy operations.”
Woerner and his team at the university have been researching the value of dairy cross beef animals and how they fit in the industry. He speaks of the known benefits of conventional beef having faster growth rates, better gut health and higher dressing percentages than dairy breeds. And how they are more muscular and their steak is more symmetrical with better colour, making it more desirable to the consumer.
But in contrast, the dairy cross beef animal has its own favourable traits, such as genetic consistency and more tender meat. Dairy genetics have the tendency to produce more marbling, they are leaner on average and their tender beef can be more flavourful than conventional beef.
Researchers have also looked into whether breeding dairy animals to beef genetics has any impact on fertility and overall productivity and lactation. Apart from an increase in gestation length of 2-3 days on average, there are no other negative impacts.
“Total productivity, in terms of the total milk produced, is at least no different from the traditional production system of using dairy bulls and dairy cows, so there isn’t a loss in productivity on the dairy farm when they shift to beef genetics,” Woerner says.
And looking at efficiency and how those animals perform when they enter the feedlots, they find the dairy cross beef has similar results to conventional beef in terms of days on feed, where the purebred dairy steers would have to be on the feedlot around 75-100 days more in comparison to those crossbreeds.
“There’s a large sustainability message there and a reduction in days on feed is good news for farmers,” Woerner says.
The dairy cross beef meat product also has proven to have more favourable traits than purebred dairy meat. For example in a retail setting, steaks from Holstein steers need to be separated due to the differences in appearance. They have sharper angles and are slightly darker in colour, which makes them less desirable to the consumer. But with dairy cross beef, there is no significant noticeable colour difference or appearance to conventional beef, so they are able to be sold together.
“It’s a logistical win because there is no need to keep track of which meat came from which type of animal to ensure its displayed separately,” Woerner says.
De Groot also shared his views and spoke about the work being done at TD Beef.
“At TD Beef we understand the value of collaboration and we focus on rewarding every shareholder in the supply chain from conception to consumption, which has positive environmental impacts too,” De Groot says.
“Dairy farmers understand the concept of the same product being valued differently for different reasons, for example, lower somatic cell count milk is more valuable than high somatic cell count milk.
“It’s the same with the calves they are producing and it’s great to see more dairy farmers are embracing that they are producing meat animals and the quality is as important as it is in milk.”
He can see how farmers are recognising they need to integrate with the beef industry as much as possible to protect themselves from the volatility of the milk market. And the integration supports traceability.
“Our international markets tell us they want a traceable product and until recently there were few options as the traditional beef market isn’t as well equipped.
“But utilising more dairy-based animals opens that door because not only is there a record of which farm it came from, but which cow, the day it was inseminated, which bull it was inseminated to and everything following through the feeding and finishing phase.
“It’s a great story to be able to tell.”
The Alltech ONE Special Feature first appeared in September issue of Dairy Farmer.
