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Beef on dairy: Different genetics require different management

A specialist from Purina says beef-on-dairy calves require different nutrition management.

Laurence Williams says they should not be fed like the new dairy calves. “These cattle are different genetically so they need a different plane of nutrition, a different type of nutrition because their whole make up is different.”

He tells Brownfield the calves are worth around fourteen hundred dollars in some markets.  “We want to build this resilient calf and the only way to do that is feed them a plane of nutrition that will allow them to sort of check those boxes with gut development, muscularity, and creating the adipocytes for marbling.”

Williams says it’s important to get enough of the right kind of protein with certain amino acids into the calves to help build muscle and create the product consumers want.  

More details about raising beef-on-dairy calves can be found in the latest report at Purinamills.com/dairy-beef.

AUDIO: Dr. Laurence Williams from Purina discusses beef-on-dairy calf nutrition with Brownfield’s Larry Lee at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.