In the realm of beef-on-dairy calves, the presence of beef genetics imparts inherent advantages, promising greater consistency and robust muscling when compared to their all-dairy breed counterparts. 

It is not the color of the animal’s hide that makes it valuable but the genetics under the hide that matter.

Raising dairy-beef crossbred calves is a value-added production strategy that is here to stay, and dairy producers have a tremendous opportunity to influence the success of their crossbred program through early-life nutrition.

Beef-on-dairy calves are an investment. These calves should be treated just as well as a heifer calf that will be raised for the dairy. A poor-quality, unhealthy calf not only hurts your bottom line, it also jeopardizes your reputation as a quality calf supplier.

With the opportunity to capitalize on record-low native beef herd numbers and the growing demand for high-quality beef, dairy-beef crossbred cattle producers can benefit from taking a second look at their early life calf nutrition program.

Utilizing beef sires on high-producing but lower genetic-quality females has been a game changer for the industry, as you know.

Using beef sires to breed a portion of dairy females provides an opportunity to increase revenue from calf sales. As more dairy producers explore beef-on-dairy crossbreeding programs to maximize the value of every calf, the industry is learning some key insights along the way.

Over the last few years, producing dairy-beef crossbred calves has not only been talked about more, but it has also become a common production practice for dairy producers across the country.

Research shows beef-on-dairy calves have improved eating quality, meat color stability and carcass yield when compared to traditional dairy animals.