A.I. & Breeding

The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) released information about the stepwise genetic base change that happens at five-year intervals. The April 2020 genetic evaluations of bulls and cows will reflect the most recent genetic base change.

The April 2020 sire evaluation had more changes than usual. This is not coincidental. The most noticeable of changes was the genetic base change.

“Knowledge is power” is a commonly used phrase, and in the dairy genetics business today, there is no shortage of information available for dairy farmers to use to try to breed a more profitable herd of cows.

Some dairy producers who are breeding for beef crossbreds are only looking at two things: the price of semen and getting an animal that is as black as possible.

Producers can capitalize on available reproductive technologies to breed efficient, profitable cows. Multiple ovulation-embryo transfer (MOET) and ovum pickup and in vitro fertilization (OPU-IVF) are two such technologies that offer producers the ability to obtain offspring from high-net-merit females and bulls to achieve faster genetic progress.

You likely have heard of or already are implementing strategic breeding in your dairy herd through use of beef genetics, but the elephant (or beef-cross calf) in the room is this: What beef genetics should you be using?