One current discussion suffering from disconnect is the growing use of beef bulls on dairy cows. The beef x dairy practice is a frequently addressed topic, but in many cases the information presented, while potentially important and insightful, is conveyed from a single perspective.

The use of beef semen in dairy cows over the past three years has simply been amazing. A recent National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) report on semen usage indicated that nearly 7 million units of beef semen were used with dairy cows in 2020.

Price-taker mentality: Use whatever beef bull you need to get the cow pregnant with a black calf. If you don’t care about influencing your price for beef-on-dairy crossbred calves, the genetics you use don’t matter.

Describe your perfect cow. Maybe words like productive, healthy, fertile or efficient come to mind. Or, maybe your perfect cow can simply be described as profitable. While those are nice descriptors, it’ll take a more specific goal to really make progress toward your perfect herd.

There’s no question about it: Beef-on-dairy breeding is red-hot right now. Stud companies are not the only ones catering their beef inventories toward dairy customers.

As milk prices continue to waver, dairy producers across the country are looking down different avenues for profit. One that seems to be growing in popularity is the practice of breeding the bottom end of a herd with beef semen and selling the crossbred calves at a higher market value.

When genomic testing was first introduced to the dairy industry in 2009, there was considerable debate and pushback about the value and reliability of the information. At first, the industry was focused on determining if we could choose bulls without progeny testing – a sea change for the A.I. industry.