Increasing numbers of beef-on-dairy crossbred cattle in feedlots

NEW PRAGUE, Minn. — The number of beef-on-dairy crossbred calves fed in the United States has been increasing over the past five years.

“Today we harvest around 25.5 million head of fed cattle,” said Dale Woerner, Cargill Endowed Professor at Texas Tech University.

“Traditionally, between 18% to 20% of those cattle have originated on a dairy and up to about five years ago the predominate breed type was Holstein steers.”

However, big changes started to occur beginning in 2017 to 2018, said Woerner during a webinar hosted by the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council.

“That was prompted by a sharp signal from the packers indicating through large discounts or maybe even refusing to buy purebred Holstein steers,” the university professor said.

“At that point, the conventional cattle inventory was high and packers had plentiful supplies of fed cattle so they had reasons to not accept Holstein steers,” he said.

As a result, dairymen looked for additional market opportunities.

“We saw sharp changes in the sale of beef semen to dairies and simultaneous drop in dairy semen to dairies,” Woerner said.

One of the first things the university professor evaluated was lactation performance.

“We worked with a couple of large dairies to compare dairy cows bred to dairy bulls with those that were bred to beef bulls,” Woerner said.

“We concluded that breeding to beef semen increased gestation time from one to two days,” he said. “But we found no meaningful differences compared to cows bred one year to the next to dairy bulls versus cows bred to beef bulls in overall lactation performance.”

Woerner evaluated closeout data from feedlots to compare conventional beef cattle to the beef on dairy crossbred cattle.

“They were similar for days on feed, feed to gain ratios and average daily gains although there was a slight advantage to the conventional cattle,” he said. “These crossbred cattle are performing closer to conventional cattle and have improved feed efficiency over Holsteins.”

The crossbred cattle have lower dressing percentages than the conventional cattle.

“The carcasses are slightly lighter, but not always for a negative reason,” Woerner said. “Most of the 1% difference is due to the fact the cattle are leaner.”

For eating quality, Woerner said, Holsteins on average are the most tender cattle in the fed cattle population.

“Conventional cattle are the lowest performing and the crossbreds are an intermediate in tenderness, but improved tenderness over conventional cattle,” the university professor said.

“All dairy-influenced cattle, crossbreds and traditional Holsteins have a superior flavor performance by producing a more desirable and increased fat-like flavor, as well as a buttery beef-fat flavor in the middle cuts,” he said. “These are the two drivers that are the most positively associated flavors with higher quality beef.”

One of the biggest findings, Woerner said, was the change in color performance in crossbred cattle versus Holstein cattle.

“Conventional beef cattle have superior color performance over Holsteins to the point where Holstein beef could not be sold in combination with conventional beef,” he said. “Holstein beef is darker colored and has a shorter shelf life than conventional beef.”

However, the crossbred cattle perform similar to the conventional beef cattle.

“We can now co-sell the cuts from the crossbred cattle with the conventional cattle cuts,” Woerner said. “This is a huge change in our industry because in the past we saw retailers selling exclusively Holstein product or selling conventional beef product.”

In addition to the color change, the researchers found meat from the crossbred cattle lasts 12 to 24 hours longer in the positive color appearance in comparison to traditional Holstein meat.

“One of the greatest concerns related to meat from dairy steers is the shape of the middle meat steaks,” the university professor said. “New York strip steaks from Holstein steers are smaller and more angular in their overall shape.”

In comparing steaks from crossbred cattle and conventional beef cattle, Woerner said, consumers cannot distinguish the difference.

“So, this issue has been resolved by crossbreeding to beef bulls and we don’t have to worry about steak shape issues with the crossbred cattle,” he said.

One issue that has not been resolved by crossbreeding dairy cows to beef bulls is liver abscesses.

“With the crossbred cattle, we observed high percentages of liver abscesses and the severity seems to be a greater issue,” Woerner said. “And we’re seeing more adherence of the liver abscesses to valuable parts of the carcass.”

The abscesses are attaching to the diaphragm muscle which is merchandised as a beef skirt steak.

“When the liver abscess is adhered to the skirt and it is removed that results in significant losses as much as $60 per head,” Woerner said.

In addition, there is time and labor loss associated with the additional trimming of the carcasses which can be even more costly than the lost of product.

“Most plants operate on dollars per minute so this can cost the facility tens of thousands of dollars over a group of cattle exhibiting a high presence of liver abscesses,” Woerner said.

Since recordkeeping on dairies is superior to beef operations, he said, there is an opportunity for traceability with the crossbred cattle.

“Providing traceability through electronic identification provides a substantial opportunity to market these products in branded programs, as well as international markets,” he said.