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Premium Beef Semen on Dairy Calculator
Producers are searching for alternatives to increase net income of their operations. Genetic companies are partnering with livestock sales companies and offering premium alternatives for crossbred calves when using beef semen. Our objective was to develop a decision support tool to analyze the net income of switching inseminations from conventional or sexed sorted dairy semen to beef semen. This partial budgeting calculation is performed considering the genetic value of animals to be inseminated and the expected premium to be received for crossbred offspring. The tool was conceived as an aid to help producers in their decision-making regarding the use of beef semen. Inputs from the herd such as herd size and herd structure, culling rate, pregnancy rate, number of virgin heifers inseminated with female sex-sorted semen, percentage stillborn, and calf mortality are used to calculate the number of replacements needed to maintain herd size and to determine the number of eligible animals for the beef program. Different prices of semen (conventional dairy, sex-sorted dairy, and conventional beef), and different prices paid for the offspring (dairy and beef crossbred) are taken into consideration. Animals are grouped according to parity (nulliparous, first, second, and greater than two lactations), and then further sub-divided according to the number of insemination to receive (one, two, three, and greater than three). The selection of animals could be made in two different ways: (1) by genetic merit or (2) by reproductive performance. After selection, the tool calculates and shows the number of replacements that will remain in the herd to maintain herd size. Further, the tool estimates the profitability of selling crossbred calves at a premium price, presenting the dollar net return for the crossbred animals, and the net return for the herd as a whole. Herds using beef semen strategies enhance their genetic gain by generating future replacements from genetically superior heifers and cows. The tool will soon be freely available from the UW-Dairy Management Website (DairyMGT.info).
Keywords: premium, beef, dairy