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Question for dairy farmers on cattle breeding
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Brown Cow
Posted 5/17/2021 18:01 (#9010345 - in reply to #9010098)
Subject: RE: Question for dairy farmers on cattle breeding


SW Wisconsin
If there is an easy way to introduce more heifers into the system (like sexed semen) then the gamble that they'll be worth more as dairy than as beef is one that a lot of guys will take.

With conventional semen, so 50% heifers, it takes an average of 2 calves before a cow replaces herself, plus a bit since not all heifer calves make it to having their second calf. Realistically, it takes an average heifer calf bred with conventional semen about 4 years to replace herself, and it's no coincidence that the average life expectancy of a dairy cow then is just a little over 4 years.

If a farm wants to expand, they have 3 options:

1. Keep cows longer

2. Buy heifers

3. Use sexed semen

#1 is slow, limited, and gives the market time to adjust. It changes the number of heifers both for the individual farm and for the larger national/ world herd.

#2 doesn't affect the total number of heifers, because if one farm buys heifers they have to buy them from another farm.

#3 is the only one that can actually, quickly, change the number of heifers available. And it works either at the farm level or at the national/ world herd level, which are not independent.

The last year has been whacky, but for several years prior (since at least 2014) milk prices had been depressed because although demand was growing, production growth was outpacing demand growth. If we could go back to the level of production growth that's possible without sexed semen it wouldn't solve every problem with the dairy market, but it would help. If you milk jerseys I'm sure you've already figured out what I did: you're better off selling half as much milk for twice as much per hundredweight than vice versa. Higher prices, not higher production, and I'm convinced that sexed semen is partially responsible for holding long term milk prices down.
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