By Tara L. Felix
Over the brief 13 years of my career, I have been shocked by how many times I end up researching a question that I think is new or brilliant, only to find that someone else asked the same question 50 years ago. While the saying “What goes around comes around” has questionable origins and is often linked to the biblical verse in Galatians 6:7, “…for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap…”, I have felt over and over in my career that this sentiment applies to cattle research. Let me tell you, nothing is more discouraging to a young PhD student than having three trials worth of really exciting data completed, only to finalize a review of literature and realize that the answer to your question was discovered back in 1970. This is why I always encourage graduate students to START with the review of literature, although they rarely heed that advice.
Why all the preamble? Well, it has happened again. Recently, my phone has been ringing off the hook with questions about the growth performance of F1 beef crosses out of Holstein dairy cows. I have some fairly standard answers that I have nearly memorized in the last month: “We don’t have much data of these crossbreds in the feedlot”; “We are not sure how the crossbreds will ‘fit in the box’ for our commodity beef markets”; and (my personal favorite) “The economics of crossbreds are too variable to predict the financial outcome at this time”. As I reviewed the literature to develop these underwhelming responses, the challenge was that most of the scientific information I could find on the crossbred Holstein to beef crosses was from the 1970’s or before! There was a brief spurt of interest in the early 1990’s, including an article by our own Dear Ol’ State! More recently, in say the last 4 years or so, there has been a plethora of popular press articles (not scientific). However, much of what has been circulating in this cycle of crossbreeding Holstein cows to beef has been anecdotal.
With or without my oh-so-unhelpful answers, crossbreeding Holstein cows with beef semen has been happening at a staggering rate over the last year. In fact, Hoard’s Dairyman recently reported on these trends. They cited that beef semen sales to dairy herds have nearly quadrupled in the past 15 years with the bulk of that growth, 59% of it, happening in the last year alone. With 9.4 million dairy cows in the United States, domestic dairy semen sales in 2018 were around 21.9 million units, down from 23.7 million units in 2015. However, beef semen sales in the last year (2017 to 2018) jumped from 2.4 million to 4 million units (Hoard’s; April 29, 2019). It does not take phenomenal math skills to calculate, or a beautiful mind, to understand where the additional units of beef semen are being used.
So, it has come around. The interest in crossbreeding Holstein cows with beef semen has certainly been on the rise. But, should it be? Or, does it benefit the dairy farmer or the beef industry? I will not attempt to answer the first question because I firmly believe that “should” is dependent on individual operators to decide for themselves and must always be based on economic returns. But, let’s answer those latter two questions looking at the end result: the crossbred calf.
Does producing a black, Holstein crossbred-calf benefit the dairy producer? I focus on black calves because it seems that has been the rumor: “Take a black calf to auction and you’ll get 50 to 100$ more for them!” I would caution against succumbing to this rumor and breeding all Holsteins to black bulls though. In the last year, the market for crossbred black calves has had some highs, 50 bucks more than the purebred Holstein calves; but, it has also had some lows, no advantage or detriment. My concern is that it seems the further down the crossbred path we get, the more reports of the latter I am hearing. One of the challenges may have to do with the semen being selected for the Holstein cows. Using the cheapest black bulls you can find from the semen company, sales ring, or auction barn does not guarantee quality calves.
Last but not least, does the crossbred dairy calf benefit the beef industry? Demand for beef is incredibly stable. One way that beef has maintained such a constant demand, in light of climbing prices and other challenges to the industry, is that we have a unique product that consumers crave. In 2016, Holstein calves made up 20% of the fed cattle slaughter in the U.S., according to the National Beef Quality Audit. Thus, we have been successful in the beef industry in taking a byproduct, Holsteins, and creating high quality beef with it. This is evidenced in some of the Holstein branded beef programs. However, we have to remember that byproducts still have to serve the commodity market. Commodity beef must fit in a box. That is why there are carcass weight discounts if we get cattle to heavy or sell them too light. Due to their prevalence, the commodity market for Holstein beef is there, i.e. we have a box for that! However, there is not currently a box for the crossbred Holstein calves hitting the market now. And, we are realizing that in the price’s producers receive for those finished calves.
“What goes around comes around”, and crossbred Holstein calves are not a new story. Perhaps there is a reason that they did not stick the last few times they cycled through. Regardless, I would advise any dairy producer making them and any beef feeder trying their hand at finishing them to walk in with both eyes open, and, as always, pencils sharpened!
Source : psu.edu