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The quality of beef animals from the dairy herd coming for processing is a concern for factories, Jonathan Forbes of Kepak said.
Forbes, speaking at the Macra na Feirme annual rally last weekend, said he is concerned about the quality of dairy-beef animals being presented for slaughter, with some of them not meeting the specification requirements of Kepak’s customers.
He said the company and the industry are taking steps to address the quality of these cattle.
The growth in dairy beef is being driven by expansion in the dairy herd with dairy farmers using beef breeding to deliver a better price for the offspring as opposed to purely dairy breeds.
“Some of the quality of those cattle coming forward is questionable … just over 50% of steer and heifers nationally fall into the retail specification of under 30 months, under 380kg and O= conformation or better … It would be remiss of us if we didn’t take steps to address this,” Forbes said.
Better understanding
While having its 3,500 head beef feedlot, Kepak is also beginning to use dairy beef on the farm to better understand the genetic side of these cattle.
That way, he explained, they can evaluate and address any shortcomings and hence opportunities in the future breeding.
“There would be a win-win for the beef and dairy sectors if we worked together to identify sires that don’t give rise to calving difficulties but that perform better as beef cattle when mature.
“So, as an industry, we’d like to get in at the beginning and influence the genetics being used - there is recognition that a dairy beef index that delivers for the dairy farmer and the calf-to-beef finisher is needed.”
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