BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – While dairy has always been an important part of the beef industry through cull cows and male animals, a perfect storm a few years caused a surge in the beef-on-dairy movement. 

The term “beef-on-dairy” refers to the mating of beef bulls to dairy females, with the resulting progeny generally used for meat production

Some of the plants shut down that handled a lot of the Holstein steers, said Jeffrey Bewley, Ph.D., dairy analytics and innovation scientist with Holstein Association USA.

“The Holstein steer is a longer, taller animal than the traditional beef animal,” Bewley said. “Most of the plants don’t handle the Holstein steers very well because the carcass is too long. That devalues the Holstein steer to a degree although Holstein steers create excellent beef.”

The other part of the perfect storm was more widespread use of genomic testing and sexed semen, Bewley said. Genomic testing allows dairy producers to understand which animals will contribute best to the next generation. Sexed semen allows producers to create females from those top-end genetics based on genomic tests.

This enables the dairy producer to breed for Holstein females from the best cows, Bewley said. They can then use beef semen on the animals on the lower end genetics, identified by genomic testing, to create a better animal for the beef market.

“It is amazing how quickly the use of beef semen on Holstein animals changed the market,” Bewley said. “It happened so fast and it has become very popular and widespread.”

Creating a product that fits the market is one thing, but the Holstein Association USA is also looking to create a product that fits the consumer, said Anne Runde, Holstein Association USA marketing development specialist.

“When you look at the Holstein ribeye it is a lot narrower and longer than your traditional Angus ribeye,” Runde said. “We’re looking to create a product that is not only going to fit the packers better but also that the consumer is going to choose consistently; something that they’ll use and something that is going to be appealing to them.”

Beef-on-dairy seems to be appealing to producers. Looking at some of the numbers, CattleFax reported that there were an estimated 2.6 million beef-on-dairy calves born in 2022, Runde said. That’s up from 410,000 head in 2018, and represents 2.2 million more beef-on-dairy animals in a short span.

At the moment, beef-on-dairy accounts for 7 percent of the fed slaughter category. If the trends continue,15 percent of the fed-slaughter category could be beef-on-dairy feeders by 2026, projected CattleFax.

Going along with this trend, as breeders look for the best complementary genetics for Holstein animals, the best bull that is being bred for beef-on-beef may not be the best bull for a Holstein for beef, Bewley explained. The genetics are different.

“In the Holstein Association, we have developed a program called HOLSim™️ that is focused on using SimAngus™ (Simmental and Angus) bulls to cross with Holstein,” he said. “They are selected specifically to be homozygous black and homozygous polled. We contribute with emphasis on rib eye size and marbling.”

SimAngus cattle combine the added muscling and muscle conformation from Simmental with the marbling and grading ability of Angus. SimAngus cattle have become highly sought after in the beef industry, producing cattle that provide economic advantages for customers.

“In general I think most dairy producers and Holstein breeders would say  … this creates a nice diversification but they need to be careful and not let it move us too far away from trying to produce that Holstein animal that makes the best dairy animal and do that with consideration of the beef production but not to let that distract from our primary goal,” Bewley said.

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