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Beef on Dairy
Beef from dairy herds has traditionally accounted for 16 to 20 percent of the beef supply in the United StatesCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag, and until recently, this supply was from straight-bred dairy cattle. Market changes and improvements in sexed semen technology have contributed to the transition from dairy to beef breed type semen use in dairies. For brevity, the conventional beef breed type will be referred to as "beef" henceforth. Using sexed semen in many dairies has led to strategic breeding for creating replacement heifers from the best females and beef semen in lower-performing dairy females2. In 2014, a volatile U.S. milk market resulted in a drop in dairy heifer prices, and in 2016 Holstein bull calves had almost no value3,4. The issue was exasperated in 2017 by major U.S. beef packers' rejection of Holstein-fed calves, leading to an estimated $610 million revenue loss to Holstein feeding operations5. With limited markets for straight-bred dairy calves, many dairy farms began breeding their females using beef semen to add value to their surplus calves. From 2017 to 2022, there was a 255% increase in domestic beef semen sales and a 30% decrease in dairy semen sales attributed to beef semen sales to dairy herds6.
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