Always in search of new business opportunities, progressive dairy farms are turning to diversified revenue streams. These astute managers have adopted a strategic beef embryo program to deliver on their herd’s future-focused management strategy.
Instead of breeding lower-genetic-value animals to beef sires, which is the more traditional path, dairies have begun placing beef embryos in lower-genetic-value females to increase the value of calves not needed as herd replacements.
These in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancies result in 100% beef calves that have calving ease and deliver value through improved feed efficiency, rate of gain, ribeye area and marbling.
The strategy enables farms to focus on the upper end of the genetics in their milking herd while delivering a new revenue opportunity. As a result, these dairies have expanded beyond a replacement female or embryo marketing program to help support the dairy’s future and financial fitness.
Why beef embryos?
The use of beef sires in dairy herds is a rapidly growing phenomenon.
Improvements in dairy herd fertility have combined to reduce the proportion of dairy breed calves required by dairy farms to retain or even grow herd sizes. This presents the opportunity to increase the proportion of beef-breed calves born, increasing both the value of calf sales and the marketability of the calves.
According to research published in the Journal of Dairy Science last year, as a result, about 40% of the semen used on dairy cattle today is either beef semen or sexed semen. The surge in popularity comes from strategies to right-size replacement inventories, set lower culling rates and add value to calves not needed as replacements.
Additionally, the National Association of Animal Breeders data indicate matings of beef sire to dairy cows doubled from 2015 to 2019. This trend is not a passing fad. By 2024, it’s estimated there will be more than 3.7 million of these dairy-beef crossbred calves.
Yet this strategy doesn’t capture the full possible value dairy farms could obtain. Although beef-cross calves have greater economic value than dairy breed calves, further gains can be made by using 100% beef breed genetics through IVF and embryo transfer.
Compared solely to the cost to produce a pregnancy, IVF is more costly than artificial insemination (A.I.). However, the economic incentive to implement the use of IVF and embryo transfer (ET) in a dairy herd is based on the ability to generate calves with superior genetic merit.
The expected benefits include:
- Accelerated genetic gain for milk and beef production
- Increased number of offspring produced from genetically elite dams
- Premium-quality beef calves
Developing a strategy of using 100% beef embryos gives dairy farms an increased opportunity to sell high-quality beef calves born from pregnancies not needed for herd replacements. Simultaneously, they can advance genetic improvement within the dairy herd and appropriately manage heifer inventories.
This trend means there's a greater opportunity with calves from beef embryos than with a crossbreeding system or how things have been done in the past with pure Holstein or pure Jersey bull calves.
Generally, these full-blood beef calves have a value of as much as $350 to $400 as day-old calves. And they offer increased retained ownership options versus crossbred or dairy bull calves. Keep in mind these rewards are the result of deliberate marketing plans and developing trusting relationships within the marketing chain.
Quality matters
These high-quality beef embryos are commercially produced specifically for placement in dairy cows. In the case of HerdFlex beef embryos, each mating is to a high-value, proven beef sire to maximize the resulting embryo’s genetic potential. Genomic testing reveals that the resulting calves are in the top 25% of the Angus breed for performance traits.
Our partners indicate one of the most powerful aspects of IVF is that an extreme performance bull that might be in very high demand and have a high semen price can be utilized to make an abundance of embryos from a small number of straws of semen.
That ability enables producers to sort carefully through a bull list and choose the bulls exhibiting the expected progeny differences (EPDs) or genetic traits that are going to create the best calf.
Data from five Minnesota Holstein and Holstein/Jersey crossbred herds and several herds in the western United Statesindicate beef embryos and beef semen can result in similar fertility results.
Preliminary data indicate the use of superior beef sires to create embryos generates excellent carcass results, too. Harvest information shows:
- 22% graded USDA Prime
- 77% graded USDA Choice
- An average daily gain (ADG) of more than 4 pounds per day
A bright future
The collaboration of the beef and dairy industries has the potential to benefit all segments of the value chain. These full-blood beef calves are of a consistent, superior genetic base, providing farmers and feeders a cost-per-gain advantage due to high carcass merit and marbling. Cattle feeders also favor the traceability and health developed through the consistent management protocols created for these calves. Plus, the ready supply of embryos means animal availability year round, delivering a steady supply to the beef cattle market.
This strategy fits in the reproductive management toolbox with other technologies dairies are using today. It’s a tool that offers a greater return on investment when applied in the right way, and certainly provides options – options that add to a dairy’s bottom line.
References omitted but are available upon request. Click here to email an editor.
