Beef-On-Dairy Numbers Continue To Grow

Beef-on-dairy is becoming increasingly common across the cattle industry.

“Having been a practicing dairy veterinarian, I remember the days of three-day-old bull calves," said Dr. Michael Dykes, president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association.  "Hard to find a home for them, and they didn't bring hardly anything. Today, every time I talk to another dairy farmer, I hear another price, so they're $1,600 - $1,800 at least. They're adding probably $4-$4.50 cwt to the milk check, just because of the price of beef on dairy. That's probably 70%-80% genetics, 20%-30% of what we're seeing on the butter fat. The advanced genetics that they're using, sex semen to produce the amount of heifers that they need for replacements, and then the rest are going to beef-on-dairy.” 

Beef-on-dairy made up 7% of fed cattle slaughter in 2022, which is about 2.6 million head.

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