![]() In turn, that frees up lower-producing cows to be artificially bred to beef bulls.īeyond the extra revenue yielded from the sale of a beef-dairy crossbred cattle, OMAFRA touts potential savings of $50,000 to $60,000 annually at a 100-head milking operation when the strategy is also used to reduce the number of replacement heifers raised on the farm at any given time. Sexed semen technology has empowered Ontario’s dairy farmers to produce adequate replacement dairy heifer calves with fewer births (by greatly cutting the odds of having bull calves). in a specially set up bank barn for that purpose. Stewardson says they do finish Holstein bull calves exclusively for the veal market - to a weight of about 750 lb. Raising animals for meat, however, is not foreign to the operation. “We have enough that it’s worthwhile for them to pick them up, but not enough for us to efficiently finish them ourselves to market weight,” he explained. A Norwich buyer picks them up when they’re still very young, once they’ve hit approximately 100 lb., and finishes them off to 1,400 lb. The resulting crossbred calves are shipped out every two weeks, he said. It’s certainly a good option,” he said.Īngus semen is most popular for cross-breeding because of demonstrated easier births for the Holstein mothers. “Sometimes … you want to keep the cow around for another lactation or two. They’ve been employing the technique for about five years. “We only do it with older cows, anything we don’t want replacements from,” he said of the beef-breeding program. The difference rises to $200 for a beef-dairy bull calf, over a Holstein bull calf.Ībout 15 % of births at the family farm, where they milk about 270 cows, are Black Angus-Holstein crosses, according to Stewardson. ![]() THEDFORD - At Stewardson Dairy in Thedford, co-owner Jeff Stewardson estimates that a female beef-dairy calf fetches $100 more than a Holstein bull calf. ![]() (Jennifer Campbell photo) Trend followed by majority of Ontario dairy farms, farmer says Breeding dairy cattle to beef bulls has been a growing trend for years, but now some farmers are taking the idea to a new level.
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