Breaking free from the chains of the past Where
truth moves faster than a Holstein calf No law
waiting on some printed page We're charting new
ground in the digital age From genomic codes
to robot facts We cut through the noise, no hold
them back not your daddy's dairy news tonight
we're sparking Welcome back to the Bullvine podcast,
where we cut through dairy industry noise to
get you the insights that actually matter for
your operation. We are focused today on really
the single most critical decision impacting your
cash flow and your long term herd stability,
precision breeding and the rise in beef on dairy
market. And this is a deep dive you cannot afford
to miss. We're unpacking the secret math, the
actual research that determines if your beef
on dairy strategy is generating $6 ,215 a month
in profit, or if you're setting yourself up for
the industry's most catastrophic liability, a
$4 ,000... replacement heifer bill. It all comes
down to reproductive efficiency. Okay, let's
unpack this immediately because the market is
just screaming at us. We're operating in a time
of what we're calling dual scarcity and understanding
both sides of this coin is, well, it's essential.
It really is. On one side, the U .S. beef cow
herd is absolutely tapped out. I mean, USDA data
confirms it's at a 64 -year low, sitting at just
27 .9 million head. The number is staggering.
We haven't seen inventory this low since 1961.
It creates a vacuum. A huge vacuum. The beef
industry is desperate for inventory. Feedlots
have bunk space to fill, and they just can't
wait for the native beef herd to rebuild. No,
they can't. So they are turning to us, the dairy
industry, as their primary, most reliable feeder
calf supplier. That desperation is what's driving
this. This unprecedented premium on the beef
cross calf. That's the scarcity driving the opportunity.
But then on the flip side, we have our own internal
scarcity issue, which is the hidden liability.
Dairy heifer inventory is also at a historic
low 2 .5 million head. That's the lowest since
the USDA even started tracking that specific
metric back in, what, 2001. That tight supply
is the ticking clock. And that tightness means
that the cost of failure is astronomical. If
you miss producing a replacement, you have to
go out and buy one. And a springing heifer. We're
seeing them anywhere from $3 ,000 up to, I mean,
$4 ,150 for top -tier genetics. That is a massive
penalty. But the opportunity is so intoxicating.
We are seeing current beef cross calves selling
for a staggering $680 up to $1 ,160 a head. You
can see why farmers are chasing this check. Oh,
absolutely. And I saw that same report you did
out of Ontario. Christophe Wan, the specialist
from Omafra, reporting prices hitting $15 per
pound. Fifteen dollars. That translates to fifteen
hundred dollars for a hundred pound calf. He
said he felt like he was talking about blueberries,
not bull calves. That's how ridiculous the demand
has gotten. I love that quote. It's perfect.
But here's the shtick, right? Everyone is looking
at that $1 ,100 check, but they need to look
at the math that justifies taking that risk.
Farm Bureau data shows a huge majority, 72 %
of dairy farms, are now using beef genetics on
at least part of their herd. It's become standard
practice. It's the stampede. Everyone is doing
it, which makes me immediately skeptical. And
you're right to be because the research we're
about to dive into, this foundational work from
Dr. Victor Cabrera's team at the University of
Wisconsin -Madison, it proves that for herds
below a specific non -negotiable reproductive
performance threshold, there is actually no viable
beef on dairy strategy. And that's the controversy,
isn't it? The majority of that 72 % could be
flying blind. They're eroding their long -term
herd stability, gambling with a $4 ,000 replacement
bill down the line. All because they saw that
short term, you know, that eleven hundred dollar
cash infusion. It's solving a cash flow problem
by creating an accrual accounting disaster. That's
it. Exactly. We have to look past the immediate
check and really look at the actual math. Absolutely.
The math is the gatekeeper and this model forces
honesty. Let's get into it. Segment one, the
core math. Reproductive efficiency is the gatekeeper.
So the brilliance of Dr. Cabrera's team wasn't
just in calculating like. the calf revenue. It
was in integrating that revenue with the overall
biological stability of the operation. They created
a decision support model called income from calves
over semen costs, or ICOSC. ICOSC. Right. It's
a crucial metric because it captures the true
cost of breeding. It strips away all the milk
price volatility. It ignores feed costs. It isolates
the economic efficiency of your reproductive
program. Which is what you need. And here's the
key part. It factors in the opportunity cost
of not producing a replacement heifer you actually
needed. That opportunity cost is the $4 ,000
elephant in the room. By calculating that liability
up front, the model determines if your breeding
strategy is truly sustainable. They tested 30
different breeding strategies, mixing sexed dairy
semen, conventional dairy, and beef semen, and
ran them against three starkly different levels
of reproductive performance, all defined by the
21 -day rolling pregnancy rate. This is the roadmap.
I mean, you need to know which tier you fall
into before you even think about signing the
next semen contract. Let's start with tier one,
high performance. This is the top 10%, maybe
15 % of operations, defined by a pregnancy rate
of around 30 % or higher. They are settling towels
fast and efficiently. And the economic outcome
here is staggering. For a typical thousand cow
herd in this category, the monthly net calf income
generated by a strategic beef program is exactly
what we teased at the top. It's $6 ,215. That's
pure profit from their breeding decisions after
accounting for all semen costs and, critically,
their replacement needs. It truly is the $6 ,215
dividend, and it's paid entirely on reproductive
efficiency. It's not a beef dividend. It's a
fertility dividend. Exactly. And their optimal
strategy is fascinating because it is so highly
selective. These herds have what the researchers
call. excess fertility. If they use conventional
dairy semen across the board, they actually end
up with a surplus of heifers they don't need,
which just congests their heifer barn and inflicts
rearing costs. They're almost too good at their
job, you know? So the optimal strategy shifts
from just producing replacements to maximizing
genetic gain and profit. Exactly. They use surgical
precision. They use expensive sex semen only
on the most genetically superior animals, which
they've identified through genomic testing. We're
talking first service heifers and maybe the top
20 % of first lactation cows. This secures their
pipeline with elite genetics. And then the remaining
60 to 70 % of the adult cow herd the animals
with lower genomic merit or those later in their
productive life. Yeah, the ones you don't necessarily
want a replacement from. They can go straight
to beef semen. And that's how they maximize the
calf premium while maintaining genetic advance
and herd size stability. They're effectively
running a dual factory. optimized by fertility.
Right. Now let's look at tier two, mid -performance.
This is where I think most solid average operations
probably sit, consistently hitting a pregnancy
rate between 20 and 25%. And this is where the
story changes completely. The economic advantage
drops and it drops deeply. For that same thousand
cow herd, the advantage falls dramatically to
about 2 ,000 one one others a month. Still important,
but less than a third of the potential profit
from tier one. And the strategy has to shift
because their margin for error is just razor
thin. They no longer have that massive fertility
cushion to fall back on. Not at all. So the optimal
strategy requires much more aggressive use of
sexed semen. You can see the shift in priority
here. They have to use sexed semen on heifers,
obviously, but also aggressively on first service
primiparous cows, those first lactation animals.
Why they're specific. Well, because the genetics
on those young cows are critical to the future
of the herd. And if they miss a conception, they
just don't have the pregnancy rate buffer to
catch up later. So they're hedging their bets.
They're committing more of their capital. The
expensive sexed semen to replacement production
before they can even think about shifting to
beef semen on later services or on older cows.
They have far less flexibility to cash in on
beef. Right. If they gamble on beef semen on
a first lactation cow and she doesn't conceive,
that cow stays open longer and they've potentially
missed generating a future high value replacement.
That $1 ,000 calf check looks pretty weak when
you're carrying a 180 day open cow. And then
we hit the harsh reality check. This is what
defines whether that 72 % of the industry is
operating sustainably. Tier three, low performance.
This is defined as a herd with a 21 -day pregnancy
rate of less than 20%. And the outcome is the
headline everyone needs to hear. Zero dollars.
Not viable. Let's spend some time on this. Why
is the viability zero? I mean, why is there no
viable strategy for using beef semen at this
level of performance? Because fundamentally,
at a 15 % or an 18 % pregnancy rate, your herd
is struggling just to keep up with its natural
culling rate. Even if you use 100 % conventional
dairy semen, you're fighting a constant battle
against herd contraction. So you're essentially
already short on inventory before you even consider
cashing in on a beef calf. Precisely. Every straw
of beef semen you use in that tier three category
is not a profit maximization move. It's an inventory
deletion event. You trade that necessary future
replacement heifer for an $800 calf check today.
But then two years from now, you have to buy
a replacement for $4 ,000 just to keep the lights
on and maintain the same number of milking stalls.
You just lost over $3 ,000 on that exchange.
Instantly. It instantly wipes out the premium
and throws the whole balance sheet deep into
the red. The researchers put it so simply. The
$6 ,215 profit is a dividend paid on reproductive
efficiency. If you don't have the efficiency,
you don't get the dividend, you get the replacement
penalty. It's all about sequencing. You can't
build a structure that relies on future stability
on a broken reproductive system. If you are Tier
3, your first dollar should go toward fixing
why your cows aren't settling, not toward buying
premium beef genetics. That message, Fix Your
Fundamentals, first leads us perfectly into the
uncomfortable industry reality check in segment
two. Let's talk about the sheer volume of the
shift. The stampede is enormous. Beef semen sales
hit 7 .9 million units in 2023. That is 31 %
of all semen sales to dairy. 31%. And we know
72 % of farms are using beef genetics. This is
now standard operating procedure. And the external
projections are just massive. Ohio State economists
are estimating that beef on dairy could account
for 15 percent of total U .S. cattle slaughter
by 2026. This isn't some pilot program anymore.
It's a structural transformation of the entire
booth supply. But this is where the skeptical
farmer in me, the one who looks at the parlor
data, not the glossy magazine ads, gets nervous.
If 72 percent are adopting this. But historically,
the average national dairy herd PR is closer
to that 20 percent to 22 percent range. Which
is right on that edge. Right on the edge. That
means a massive portion of the industry is sitting
firmly in that dangerous tier two or worse, that
crippling tier three category. They are fundamentally
misaligning their strategy. They're making decisions
based on cash flow temptation. That $1 ,100 check
is real today, but the $4 ,000 liability is a
cruel, meaning it hits two years from now. It's
a very human mistake. Prioritizing the immediate
gain over the deferred cost. It's the definition
of ignoring the hidden liability. You are intentionally
creating an internal inventory shortage that.
in today's market is punishingly expensive to
solve. And the inability of the industry to recover
the replacement pipeline quickly is the other
crucial element of this heifer crisis. That 2
.5 million heifer inventory low isn't just a
number. It explains why replacement prices are
so volatile and so high. The problem is the lag
time. A heifer born today doesn't give you a
gallon of milk for 24 months. The shortage we're
seeing right now in the springing heifer market
is the direct result of breeding decisions made
two or three years ago when the initial rush
to beef release started. We are paying the price
for past decisions that prioritized immediate
calf revenue over pipeline integrity. And you
simply cannot rush biology. Even if the entire
dairy industry slammed the brakes on beef semen
tomorrow, it would take two full years just to
get those replacement calves into the milking
herd. Analysts don't expect the national beef
herd inventory to recover meaningfully before
2028, which means this window of high calf premiums
and crippling replacement costs is going to last
for years. Which means the stakes of using the
wrong strategy are higher than ever. I want to
revisit that point from the UW research about
the cushion because it scared me when I first
read it. The models showed that even a thousand
cow tier one herd, the absolute elite. 30 % PR
operations, produces only one extra replacement
heifer per month beyond what is needed to maintain
herd size. One heifer buffer. That's like having
one spare tire for the whole farm. It's minimal.
Think about what one bad event does to that cushion.
One mild outbreak of metritis during a heat -stressed
summer, or a slight uptick in pneumonia in the
calf barn, and you lose five calves in one month.
Suddenly, you've erased five months of your replacement
buffer. You're short. That fragility should make
even the best managers cautious. So the recommendation
from serious consultants, the guys looking at
the data and not just the check. is non -negotiable.
You must keep at least 25 % to 30 % of your breedings
strictly allocated to replacement production.
This is your insurance policy. And that 25 %
to 30 % is a minimum recommendation. If your
PR is lower or if your calling rate is high,
say 40%, that percentage needs to be significantly
higher. Or you need to use sex semen on those
allocated breedings aggressively. You have to
secure the pipeline first, period. We saw that
cautionary tale play out in real time with a
specific tie stall operation we've talked about.
They were seduced by the high calf premiums and
shifted almost 80 % of their breedings to beef.
They likely fell into that Tier 2 category, thinking
they had enough of a cushion. They found out
they didn't. When spring arrived and they needed
to maintain their herd size to fulfill their
milk contract, they realized they were short
10 heifers. And when heifer prices spiked past
$3 ,500, the cost to purchase those replacements
just to stay even totaled over $35 ,000. That
one purchase bill completely negated their beef
calf premiums for the entire year. They essentially
paid $35 ,000 to generate maybe $10 ,000 in net
calf profit. The bottom line of this segment
is that profitability is measured not by the
calf check, but by the stability and long -term
security of your replacement barn. Don't let
the short -term rush create a long -term structural
failure. It's a cash flow drug that can mask
a deep inventory disease. All right, let's talk
about the money in segment three, but specifically
the demands of the downstream buyers. Because
the margins are massive, but the market is becoming
highly sophisticated. Well, we already covered
the astronomical current premiums, $680 ,000
to $11 ,160. What's crucial for high -performing
farmers is that even if the market deflates significantly,
the strategy remains sound if they are tier one
or two. That's the structural advantage. Back
in 2021, Cabrera's original model, when beef
calves were only worth about $225, calculated
the break -even point for high -performing herds
at just $69 a head. Mid -range herds hit break
-even at $100. That means current prices are
10 to 15 times that original break -even threshold.
Even if that premium dropped 50 % tomorrow. If
that $1 ,100 calf suddenly sold for $550, the
strategy remains extremely economically sound
if you have the reproductive efficiency to back
it up. The margin is huge. The market dynamics
are strong, given the lack of native beef inventory,
but the quality demands are rising fast. This
isn't the Wild West anymore. No, it's not. We
need to acknowledge the total transformation
of the dairy steer. The traditional, discounted
Holstein steer is rapidly being replaced by the
body animal, the crossbred, typically Angus dairy.
And the feedlots are paying because these crossbreds
offer better muscling, superior feed efficiency,
and importantly, they achieve higher quality
grades than traditional dairy steers. They simply
perform better on the rail. But that leads us
straight to the big trap, the black hide fallacy.
When this trend started, the feedlots just needed
a black calf. And cheap Angus semen was sufficient.
It just signaled the animal wasn't a pure Holstein.
That era is over. Now, feedlots and packers are
incredibly sophisticated. They're not just buying
a color. They're buying a carcass with a history.
They are demanding raising with intent. And intent
means data. They want specific EPDs expected
progeny differences for terminal traits. For
the dairy farmer listening, EPDs are essentially
the beef industry's version of your genomic report
card. They are predicting how a bull's offspring
will perform. They want high numbers for carcass
weight, which tells them how heavy the finished
animal will be, high marbling scores for better
quality grades, and crucially, ribeye area EPDs.
Generic, cheap Angus genetics just won't cut
it. If you're using low -quality semen, you are
creating a black holstein, an animal that looks
the part but doesn't have the growth or yield
potential. You're leaving $200 or $300 ahead
on the table by choosing cheap semen. And traceability
is now currency. Buyers are paying true premiums
for farms providing vaccination records, detailed
colostrum protocols, and verified weight documentation.
They want to de -risk their investment from day
one. Which brings us to the single biggest technical
challenge in the supply chain, and the thing
that could cause the entire market to revolt
if we don't get it under control. Liver abscesses.
This is a crisis point. It's estimated to be
a $30 million problem industry -wide due to lost
organs, slowdowns, and yield reduction. Research
shows abscess rates can hit 50 to 70 percent
in some large -scale beef on dairy groups. 50
to 70 percent. I mean, compare that to 10 or
20 percent in native beef. That huge discrepancy
points directly back to our dairy calf management
practices. Let's detail the mechanism because
this is where the dairy farmer holds the key.
The root cause is linked to the common goal of
promoting rapid rumen development in the young
calf. Farmers feed high -starch starter rations.
The intention is good, but if that ration is
too high in rapidly fermentable starch and insufficient
and effective fiber, you know, fiber long enough
to stimulate cud chewing and saliva production,
the calves develop subclinical acidosis. The
pH in the rumen just drops drastically. And that
acid is corrosive. It damages the lining of the
rumen wall. Once the wall is compromised, specific
anaerobic bacteria, primarily Fusobacterium necroforum
and Truperilla pyogenes, leak out of the gut
and get into the bloodstream. That blood flows
directly to the liver where the bacteria lodge
and swarm those puss pockets, the abscesses.
And for the packer, this is a nightmare scenario
that affects their entire bottom line. First,
they have to condemn the liver, which is a lost
salable organ. But much worse is the line speed
slowdown. If the abscesses are severe, they cause
adhesions, literally sticking the liver to the
diaphragm or the spurt stake. That requires extensive
carcass trimming, reducing yield, and massively
slowing down a line that moves thousands of heads
per hour. Cargill, JBS, they are extremely aware
of this yield drag and slowdown. This is the
kind of system failure that will lead to future
industry -wide price discounts if we don't get
proactive management in place. This is where
the premium fades and turns into a penalty. So
what are the actionable countermeasures for the
dairy producer? It's all about nutrition and
early intervention. We need to look at nutritional
strategies focusing on room and stability. Yes,
using 27 % protein milk replacers helps general
health. But specifically, you need to manage
the starch fiber balance in that starter. Ensure
you have adequate physical fiber. not just ground
hay, but fiber that forces rumination to naturally
buffer the rumen. And we are seeing feed additives
play a huge role. Incorporating specific probiotics
helps stabilize the rumen microbiome. Furthermore,
strategic use of feed additives like ionophores,
which are common in beef feedlot rations, can
directly inhibit the growth of Fusobacterium
necroform in the rumen, reducing the risk of
leakage and abscess formation later in life.
If we don't fix the acidosis problem on the dairy
farm. In that calf rearing phase, the packer
will absolutely charge us for that management
failure down the line. And speaking of yield
drag, the dressing percentage, the amount of
hot carcass weight relative to labe weight, is
another key specification. It absolutely matters.
The big packers have noted that dairy cross cattle
often dress lower 60 to 61 percent compared to
native beef, which averages around 63 .5 percent.
That difference creates a tangible yield drag,
and it's a primary reason why they might temper
prices compared to purebred beef. We need to
focus on genetics that close that gap, emphasizing
muscling and fat cover. So, to summarize this
segment, the margins are incredible, but the
market is rapidly becoming merit -based. Quality,
genetics, traceability, and a verified health
status are now non -negotiable requirements for
capturing the full premium. Let's shift into
segment four, strategic imperatives. If you're
serious about capturing that $6 ,215 profit,
you have to run a brutally honest farm audit.
We have identified four non -negotiable numbers
every farmer needs to know before placing the
next bulk semen order. Number one is your actual
21 -day pregnancy rate, not your target, not
your best quarter. You need a rolling 12 -month
average. This single number is your gateway.
It determines whether you are in the $6 ,215
tier, the $2 ,001 tier, or the $0 tier. If you
don't know this number, you are gambling your
herd's stability. Number two, replacement allocation.
Are you dedicating a non -negotiable 25 % to
30 % of your breedings to guaranteed dairy replacements?
You need to audit your heifer supply by age group
and compare that supply directly against your
herd's 12 -month culling rate. That buffer is
your cheapest insurance policy against that $4
,000 replacement bill. Number three, genomic
cutoff. This is where we apply science to take
the emotion out of breeding decisions. Genomic
testing runs about $40 to $50 a head, but it
allows you to identify the lowest genetic merit
animals, say the bottom 10 or 15%, based on an
index like the Wellness Trade Index or the Net
Merit Index. So the practical application is
this. You set a hard line. Every animal below,
say, 120 GTI gets beef semen, guaranteed. Every
animal above gets priority for sexed semen or
high -value conventional dairy. You are breeding
your best to dairy and your rest to beef based
on objective data, not just what cow looked good
in the headlock this morning. And number four,
actual calf premium. Stop reading the optimistic
auction reports from across the country. Look
at your own checkbook. Is the premium you are
actually receiving for your beef calves really
$900, or is poor timing, weak marketing, or a
low... trust buyer relationship, reducing it
down into that $350 to $500 range. If you're
at $350, you are perilously close to the break
-even point, especially if you also have to buy
replacements. That leads perfectly into the contrarian
take. This is the bullvine's core mission, challenging
the hype. For herds below that 20 % PR, the tier
three operations, the capital should absolutely
not be spent on buying high fertility beef semen.
I'm not buying that. No way. If I have $500 to
spend, I shouldn't be spending it on beef semen.
I should be spending it on fixing the reason
the cow isn't getting pregnant in the first place.
That capital needs to be redirected to improving
reproductive fundamentals. So you're saying spend
the money on transition cow management, better
heat detection technology, maybe switching from
tail chalk to a robust activity monitoring system,
or investing in synchronization protocols like
double off -synch. Exactly. That capital provides
a far better long -term return. Think about it.
If I'm at 18 % PR, every dollar I spend on semen
is likely wasted because the cow isn't ready
to settle. But if I spend that money on better
fresh cow care and I go from 18 % PR to 22 %
PR, I just move myself from the $0 category to
the $2 ,000 a month category. Then the beef opportunity
is there and it will wait for me. That is a massive
return on investment in fundamentals. That is
the responsible long -term approach that secures
the herd's future. Now, let's discuss the strategic
deployment based on the tiers, because it's highly
nuanced. For the mid -range herds, those 20 -25
% PR herds, you absolutely must use sexed semen
on your first lactation cows. That primiparous
cow is your critical high -value replacement
buffer. You cannot risk a bad conception by switching
straight to conventional or beef on that first
service. Secure that high genetic future lactation
first. And for the high performers, the 30 %
PR herd, their focus should shift almost entirely
to optimizing the beef side. They should be using
the highest possible terminal indexes when selecting
beef bowls. They need to prioritize carcass weight
and ribeye area EPDs because their replacement
needs are already securely met. And here's a
critical nuance often missed. Even high performers
should not cheap out on beef semen. Choose high
fertility beef sires. A cheap straw of beef semen
that fails to settle the cow is costing you massive
dollars in lost conception days and extended
days open. You want the cow pregnant quickly,
whether she's carrying dairy or beef, fertility
always matters. Finally, let's talk about biosecurity
as an asset. Because this is where a farm can
really differentiate itself and guarantee future
premiums. This is about building trust with your
downstream buyer. Buyers are terrified of disease
risk, particularly BVDPI bovine viral diarrhea,
persistently infected. If you implement universal
ear notch testing on all your calves and you
market your beef calves as BVD negative verified,
you have immediately created a high trust asset
that feedlots are desperate for and will pay
a premium to acquire. And it comes down to consistency
in care. Ensure your beef on dairy calves receive
the exact same high -quality colostrum protocols
and vaccine schedules as your replacement heifers.
A calf with failure of passive transfer today
is an abscess risk tomorrow, and that failure
will hurt your reputation with your buyer far
more than any short -term premium gained. That
reputation is worth more than the $1 ,100 check
you get this month. It secures the buyer relationship
and your access to that premium market for the
next five years. All right, that was a dense
dive. A farmer just finished milking. They're
driving to the feed store thinking about their
next semen order and how they can access this
market responsibly. What are the three things
they need to remember from today's deep dive?
Takeaway number one, know your tier. It determines
your reality. What you need to do tomorrow, pull
the actual 21 -day rolling pregnancy rate, be
brutally honest with the data, and use that single
number to decide if you belong in the $6 ,215,
the $2 ,001, or the $0 profit category. The 90
-day plan. If you are Tier 3, that's sub -20
% PR. You need to halt aggressive beef semen
purchases right now. Invest that saved capital
into improving heat detection protocols, fresh
cow management, or synchronization. Fix the cow
before you breed her to beef. The long game.
Only after your PR is consistently over 20 %
and you've proven you can sustainably maintain
inventory, should you design a limited, sustainable
beef on dairy program, the market opportunity
will still be there. Takeaway number two. Secure
your pipeline first. The $4 ,000 penalty is real.
What you need to do tomorrow. Count your heifers
by age group and compare them to your culling
rate. Ensure you are targeting 25 to 30 % more
replacements than you need to maintain herd size.
That margin is your safety net, especially with
the industry running so low. The 90 -day plan.
If you find you are short on that margin, you
must allocate sex semen not just to heifers,
but to your top genetics first lactation cows,
especially if you are in that precarious 20 %
PR tier. That is your most valuable female asset.
The long game. Treat replacement heifers as your
most valuable asset. The cost to raise an extra
heifer around $2 ,200 is the cheapest insurance
you can buy against having to pay $4 ,000 plus
for a purchased replacement. Overproduce replacements
and sell the surplus for guaranteed profit. And
takeaway number three, get smart on beef genetics
and health. Stop wasting capital on generic black
hides. What you need to do tomorrow. When purchasing
beef semen, stop buying generic black hide bulls.
Use terminal indexes focusing explicitly on high
carcass weight and ribeye area EPDs. Demand quality
genetics, not just color. The 90 -Day Plan. Implement
universal BVD -PI ear -notch testing on all calves,
dairy, and beef. Market your beef calves proactively
as BVD -negative verified to potential feedlot
buyers. This health status is a massive premium
opportunity and builds long -term trust. The
Long Game. Utilize the free DairyMGT .info calculator
to model your replacement needs and profit margins
against various beef deployment ratios. Use the
science to commit to the ratio that fits your
specific PR before you sign that next bulk semen
contract. Don't guess the stability of your future
herd. This has been another Bullvine Podcast
from the Bullvine Podcast. For more straight
-talking industry analysis, including the data
behind these fertility tiers and the full Cabrera
report, head to www .thebullvine .com. Subscribe
wherever you get podcasts. We're out with new
deep dives every day, and upcoming topics include
the rising role of artificial intelligence in
monitoring feed efficiency and the latest on
regulatory changes concerning whole herd testing
and disease management. We'll talk to you next
time.