The Rural Voice, 2019-06, Page 22revealed Wagyu are the best beef
cross for calving ease. “Globally and
domestically, Wagyu has seen a large
increase in dairy herds and the
biggest advantage is niche markets.
They have a low birthweight and can
marble really high but rank
extremely low on performance. In
contrast Charolais, Limousin and
Belgian Blue have extremely high
yield grade. Angus is a good choice
because they do a lot of things really
well.”
When choosing bulls, what are
you looking for?
Craig Connell:“We use Angus
bulls on heifers and we don’t see any
difference between them and
Holstein bulls (birthing). But we
know that Cargill wants to limit
Holstein steers because there is a lot
of beef cross hitting the market now
and what they propose is that beef
types at the rail will be priced, say,
$2.55 per pound while Holstein
crosses will be ten cents back and
straight Holsteins 20 cents back at
$2.35. As for us, we like the Belgian
Blue, always have. Though we prefer
British Blue to full Belgian Blue
because they are a little easier
calving and they shape up well at the
end of the day.”
Rita Maciukiewicz: “We’ve been
breeding beef for about three years
and when we asked our semen
representative what he had, he had
Limousin and Belgian Blue. We like
the Limousin because they are polled
so that’s a bonus.”
Aaron Keunen:“We’ve been
buying beef cross calves for a long
time for veal and fattened cattle. We
find a lot of small butcher shops like
to have a high yield animal so they
can put less animals through for the
same amount of meat. On the
fattened animals side, we like the
Belgian Blue crosses though the
carcass yield isn’t always an
advantage ... sometimes we have to
slow them down to get a bit of
marble. What I don’t like to see is
big frames because they are hard to
feed on our program. We like to sell
at 15 months and have them
weighing 1,500 pounds. If there is
too much frame, the ribeye gets
undesirable and we get into 20 and
30 cent cuts due to the marketability
of the meat.
What do farmers need to
consider before implementing a
beef on dairy program?
Rita Maciukiewicz: “We just
shipped two animals. One was a
Holstein (710 pounds) and one was a
crossbred Limousin (715 pounds).
We sold the Holstein for $695 and
the crossbred for $836 so there is
money to be made. It does pencil out
to use beef semen.”
Aaron Keunen:“As
crossbreeding becomes more
predominant in dairy herds, we are
starting to get two industries and
businesses competing. Now you are
competing with fat cattle on the veal
side so you have to keep the price in
line with what buyers can pay.”
Brad Gilchrist:“So far we’ve
talked about premiums but the bigger
advantage is the genetic gain for
dairy herds. Breed the females from
the top half of your herd. It’s a
‘retain the best and forget the rest’
mentality.
Both sides need to hear each
other. When Aaron says he needs
calves that feed out well, dairy
farmers need to hear that. Dairy
farmers need the least amount of
calving problems so they can breed
their cows again.
We look at dairy and beef as very
different but in reality the two
industries are very similar. So
understand why you do what you do
and why you need to do it.”
Craig Connell:“In the United
Kingdom, we always bred a lot of
cows to beef. Our neighbours bred
everything to beef! Over here, the
market has been good for Holstein
heifers for a long time. That has
changed dramatically over 18
months. Because of the price of veal,
we buy 60-70 calves per week out of
the veal market. We take them home,
dehorn and castrate them and they go
right into the beef feedlot.
If I were to make a suggestion, I’d
say castrate and dehorn the calves
right away. If the veal market is
good, sell. If not, keep the calves and
fatten them up.
When it comes to castrating, take
your time and make sure you have
both nuts in there. We see it happen
often that there is one left and those
calves sell at a discount.”
How about heifers?
Craig Connell:“We buy males
and females. No problem. We like
females just as good as males.”
Brad Gilchrist:“The supply of
crossbreeds is really high right now
because lots of dairymen in
California are switching to beef on
dairy. In the beef industry, there is a
18 The Rural Voice
Angus is an ideal cross for use in a beef on dairy strategy but those raising
crossbred calves also like Limousin or Belgian Blue crosses to raise calves
for the veal or beef market.