Tight cattle supplies and unwavering consumer demand for beef have pushed cattle prices to new record highs. Dairy producers have taken notice of these higher cattle prices and accelerated the use of beef genetics on their dairy cows over the past seven years. According to the National Association of Animal Breeders, 7.9 million units of beef semen were sold to dairy farmers in 2024, trailing the top category of sex-sorted dairy semen, which sold 9.9 million units. This marks back-to-back years that U.S. dairy farmers purchased a record number of beef semen units to use on their dairy herds.
Roughly 20% of the beef supply originates from the U.S. dairy herd, and with the lowest U.S. beef cattle numbers since 1951, that percentage is inching higher. As dairy farmer mindsets shifted from producing extra replacements to producing more calves primed for the beef supply, U.S. dairy-bred fed slaughter has grown to be more than 4 million head annually, and over half are beef-on-dairy, according to CattleFax. The cattle herd is shifting to fewer purebred dairy animals and more dairy-beef crosses, with more details in a new report by CoBank, Beef-on-Dairy Data Suggests Opportunity for Feedlots and Processors.
By Abbi Prins, Cobank
March 20, 2025
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