| lacockcattleco - 8/16/2026 16:50 I don’t know the answer but I would be way more interested to know the number of 1/2 dairy calves entering the meat market now vs. then. My guess is that number has increased substantially. How do you suppose that happened?
The use of sexed semen became widespread.
This allowed them to focus on getting replacement heifers out of the best cows and breed everything else to colored bulls. Not only do they not need to breed everything to dairy bulls to hope for enough heifers, it also allows them to be more selective on replacements.
This practice is so widespread in this area that there simple aren’t many purebred Holstein bull calves around anymore. The number of 1/2 dairy calves is way up, the number of purebreed dairy steers is way down, they were replaced with 1/2 breed steers and heifers.
Edited by Kooiker 8/16/2026 17:19
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Cattle downsizing
