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Replacement dairy heifer prices jump 69% as beef on dairy trend continues

A market expert says higher beef prices are creating additional challenges for dairy herd expansion.

Mike North with Ever.ag says dairy producers have been using sexed semen to get beef calves from dairy cows as cattle markets have notched record highs. “Some of these two and three-day-old calves are bringing as much as a thousand dollars, and so if I’ve got an opportunity to make a thousand dollars on a calf without having to feed it for a year and a half, that’s a fantastic opportunity.”

He tells Brownfield the beef on dairy trend has resulted in tight replacement heifer supplies and higher heifer prices. “Some animals moving in the northwest last week were north of $4,000 an animal. That’s a pretty tall price, and so now, guess what? We’re seeing people starting to switch some of their breeding back to that replacement animal.”

In Wisconsin, for example, USDA’s report on November prices paid to farmers showed the cost of a replacement dairy animal in October 2024 was 69% higher than October 2023.  The price jumped from $1,990 to $2,850 in that time, an increase of $860.

North says the amount of inventory cut out of the nation’s beef herd has been greater than the new beef inventory from the dairy herd, so the widespread adoption of beef on dairy has not compromised the ability for beef producers to expand when the time is right.

AUDIO: Mike North from Ever.ag discusses beef-on-dairy and the relationship with the cost of replacement calves with Brownfield’s Larry Lee