The idea of crossbreeding low genetic/productive dairy cows with beef semen has become a growing practice on dairies. The main reason for the growth is the increased value of the offspring when compared to the traditional dairy male calf.
While the beef calf value is a real benefit, there are even more advantages. The use of sexed semen on the top of the herd to create replacement heifers also increases the selection intensity and speeds up genetic progress. Moreover, proactively managing heifer inventory will avoid excess replacements and result in lower rearing expenses.
More cash for beef cross calves, better genetics for replacement females and cost optimization is ideal, but it can be at risk if not careful while selecting beef genetics.
The first step in this process is to ensure the beef genetics will perform well in getting the cows pregnant and then to demonstrate calving performance. Additionally, producing a healthy and efficient calf that will create value for the whole beef supply chain.
ABS has multiple ways to support dairy farmers setting up a beef on dairy plan, below are several resources to start the process.
Beef on Dairy, but not as you know it.
ABS Beef InFocus™, powered by NuEra Genetics™, delivers proven and reliable beef genetics for the dairy producer to maximize calf crop value while driving beef supply chain efficiency.
Using Sexcel, customers have the power to decide with, as much precision as biology and technology currently allows, which part of the herd will pass on their genetics and make replacement heifers for the next generation.
NuEra Genetics: A New Era in Beef Genetic Improvement
NuEra Genetics is a distinctive new era of ABS beef genetic improvement. A chapter that is focused on providing robust improvement and delivering value to customers throughout the beef supply chain.
The mating program you can trust with a robust database. Knowing the impact genetics have on a herd and profitability over time led our team in 1968 to develop the first mating program, Genetic Management System (GMS). Today, we celebrate 55 years of GMS, a tool that has already performed more than 165 million mating […]