Beef-On-Dairy: A Worldwide Phenomenon
Dairy-beef has become a worldwide trend. European bull-studs report that up to 40% of dairy cows are now bred to beef bulls. In North America this trend has been somewhat more recent but continues to expand year by year. According to figures from the NAAB in the US, total domestic semen sales last year for semen from dairy bulls dropped by 11% from the previous year, while the domestic sales of beef semen jumped by 44%. Fueled by the use of sexed semen to produce replacement heifers from only the better genetic merit animals, and driven by the desire to create greater income from the calves from the lower genetic merit cows, dairy-beef has become a worldwide phenomenon. Previously we focused on Europe and North America but in this update for beef-on-dairy sires we look at another major dairy country, New Zealand.
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