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Nutritionist says look at feeding, genetics, markets before starting beef-on-dairy

A nutritionist says more dairy producers are considering beef production alongside their milking herds, but there are steps to take before diving into the new enterprise. 

Aimee Hafla with Cargill Animal Nutrition tells Brownfield getting started with a beef-on-dairy system starts with the right genetics. “I would say it’s as easy as interacting with your genetics company and understanding what metrics they have and what information they have to help you start selecting the right sires to use to start the system.

But Hafla says producers need to look at the entire picture, from start to finish before committing time and money into raising beef animals. “Try to figure out your market channel for where these animals are going to go before you jump into it. What availability of market channels do you have, and understanding once you pick that, there’s going to be a little gap of time before those animals are ready for that market channel.

Hafla says the Holstein traits build a good frame, so feeding the beef animals is different since the focus is on building more lean muscle.

Hafla says producers have options including selling young animals to a calf ranch, keep them to around 500 pounds and sell to a feed lot, or finish the animals and sell by direct marketing or to commercial processors.

Hafla spoke to Brownfield during the Dairy Strong Conference in Green Bay, I’m Larry Lee, Brownfield Ag News.