Growing Beef from Dairy Conference: International experts weigh in

Dairy-to-beef production is often overlooked, but it’s generating ever-increasing dollars not only in Australia but internationally.

Lactation is not adversely affected by dairy-to-beef breeding, international researchers have found as the practice becomes commonplace.

Farmers, researchers and meat industry figures took part in the 2022 Growing Beef from Dairy Conference, hosted by Dairy Australia, in Melbourne today.

The future of dairy-to-beef production was examined in a Melbourne conference today.

Appearing via video-link from the United States, Texas Tech University animal and food Science expert Dale Woerner said consumer expectations were being met by dairy-to-beef produce.

“We certainly realise that the concept of breeding beef bulls with dairy cows is not a new concept. In fact, you can see published research in North America going back some time,” Professor Woerner said.

“Industry and research have dabbled in this (with dairy to beef) for decades now. But in recent times, for whatever reason – market signals being what they are – in our beef-packing sector, we’ve seen significant changes.

“We started our research efforts at Texas Tech in 2018. Our research primarily focused around meat quality. Some of the realisations we’ve come to are the differences between conventional beef cattle versus dairy cattle.”

Professor Woerner said there were differences between the beef and dairy cattle varieties relating to gut health, liver composition and muscle-to-bone ratio.

“(There’s) several advantages on the dairy side including eating characteristics such as marbling, differences in muscle biology, muscle fibre type – all of which provide positive eating experiences,” he said.

Professor Woerner said his research had provided confidence to the dairy sector that traditional dairy lines can be crossbred with beef bulls and not affect lactation.

“The overall lactation performance has not been affected at all. In fact, dairy cows bred to beef bulls … ultimately produced a slight advantage in lactation, further adding to the idea that breeding to beef bulls does not detrimentally impact the volume of milk produced by dairy cows.”

Appearing via video-link from Canada, University of Guelph animal bioscience expert Michael Steele discussed how prenatal research was critical to breeding beef-ready calves.

“When you look at the concept of beef from dairy, we do a lot of studies in our lab following dairy cows for their entire life. We look at early-life nutritional regimen and we follow those calves for six or seven years,” Professor Steele said.

“We’re really far behind prenatally in the dairy world compared to the beef world. So in the beef world, we know when all these muscle fibres are being generated in the calf and at different phases – at first, second and third trimester – what will dictate the total number of muscle cells. This is actually predetermined around seven months into gestation.

“We don’t know too much in the dairy world how prenatal nutrition can impact a (dairy) calf. “But I would argue in the dairy world, just because of our precision feeding compared to the beef world, there are lots of opportunities to change this and to feed particular additives and particular styles of feeding prenatally to a dairy cow that’s carrying a beef embryo.”