Want to increase the income of your cull animals? The Dairy Beef Quality Assurance Program can help you identify opportunities for improving the value of market cows and bulls from your operations through management, monitoring and marketing. Quality defects can rob dairy producers of almost $70 per head at market, according to the 1997 National Market Cow and Bull Beef Quality Audit.
Dairy cattle represent a significant source of the United States beef supply. Twenty percent of all beef comes from dairy cattle, including cull cows and dairy steers. This equates to 1.5 billion pounds of meat every year. In the western states alone, more than 800,000 head, worth $500 million, go to slaughter every year.
One of the most common misconceptions in the dairy industry is that all market cows become hamburger. “This is a misnomer,” says Ryan Ruppert, director of quality-assurance programs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Only a small percentage goes to ground beef, while the majority goes to whole-muscle cuts that are purchased by restaurants and casinos across the country. Whole-muscle cuts include rib eyes, New York strips, and tenderloins. In addition, 90 to 95 percent of the jerky marketed in the United States comes from cow rounds.
Beef from dairy cattle plays an important role in the food chain. Approximately one out of three cows currently in your milking string could be on a consumer’s plate in the next 12 months. Most dairy producers underestimate the value that this secondary profit center could bring them. And, that 4 percent income from market cows can be raised to 15 percent with proper care and marketing.
The safety and quality of beef produced is critical not only to the consumption of beef, but also milk.
A substantial economic incentive exists for dairy producers to care about beef quality. A premium of $5 to $10 per hundredweight can be realized if dairy cattle qualify for the “white-cow market.” Some beef packers offer incentives for cows that fit this market. The name “white cow” is derived from the practice of transitioning an animal’s fat color from yellow to white to produce a higher-quality carcass.