The dairy on beef cross is gaining steam in the cattle market. Mike North, president of the producer division at Ever Dot Ag, said dairy is in a great position to take that over.

If you look at the animals that we are producing in this space, you have an opportunity to produce a consistent carcass for a meat packer that is in search of a consistent carcass, because as they go out and sell their product into the marketplace, whether it’s food service or retail, they get orders for a very consistent product. They want a certain size rib eye delivered consistently, month after month.”

He said crossing beef and dairy cattle could make up the shortage of beef cattle in the U.S.

Well, if you look at the genome inside the dairy space, it’s very harmonized. That Holstein cow doesn’t change much from one farm to another. That Jersey cow doesn’t change much from one farm to another. And so, if we bring beef semen into that marketplace, and then really drive home that point of consistency with the kind of quality that we’re seeing and being able to bring calves into the space day after day, week after week, month after month, rather than in one big batch in the spring or one big batch in the fall. We can really deliver to that consumer demand over time in a much more consistent fashion.”

Dairy cows and calves can bring something unique to the beef sector.

“That’s not to say that beef has done a bad job. They have not. They’ve set the standard. The reality is that we have a production system inside of dairy that has cows bringing calves to the market every single day. And again, back to that genetics opportunity. There’s a real opportunity for dairy to really show its vigor here.”