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Economist: beef-on-dairy a tremendous win keeping dairy farmers afloat

An economist says dairy producers are paying much closer attention to the beef market, now that raising beef-on-dairy has created a new revenue stream for the dairy farm.

John Newton with American Farm Bureau Federation tells Brownfield that during a recent farm credit system dairy conference, milk prices were not the big discussion item.  “You would think you’d get a bunch of dairy producers together and they’d be talking about butter prices or milk prices.  They were talking about beef prices and they were talking about the cattle market.”

Newton says beef on dairy has been a tremendous win for the dairy industry, and is keeping a lot of dairy producers afloat as milk prices continue to decline.

Newton says when you look at the big picture, the number of beef-on-dairy animals is just a small fraction of the total beef market.