LOMIRA, Wis. — For the past six years, Elsinger Farms has utilized beef semen to manage dairy heifer inventories. Over the past 18 months, the farm has expanded its beef-on-dairy program to include beef embryos. Today, more than half of the herd is mated to produce beef calves.
“Our primary reason for using embryos is to settle cows that are hard to breed back,” Brenda Elsinger said. “We’re hoping this is a way of keeping our girls in the herd a little bit longer.”
Elsinger and her husband, Jeff, farm with their son, Mike, as well as a team of employees near Lomira. Candidates for embryos include first-lactation animals beyond a third service; second- and third-lactation animals past their second service; and cherry-picked fourth-lactation cows.
“These cows cannot have any health events in the first 60 days of lactation,” Elsinger said. “Cows that get metritis, for example, are not candidates.”
Elsinger uses SimVitro HerdFlex embryos by Simplot Animal Sciences, a division of the J.R. Simplot Company. Simplot provides full-beef embryos to dairy farms through a partnership with Select Sires Inc. Embryos are created from a full-beef sire and a full-beef dam to deliver a calf that adds value through improved feed efficiency, rate of gain, ribeye area and marbling.
“Dairy farmers are using beef embryos for a variety of reasons, and the benefits to each differ on what their goals are,” said Jeremy Howard, senior sales and marketing manager at Simplot Animal Sciences. “From selling a day-old calf to selling an animal hanging on the rail, dairy farmers are capturing the value of beef embryos all the way through the management system.”
Simplot collects ovaries from Black Angus females that come through their processing facility to be harvested for beef.
The ovaries are aspirated and run through the in vitro fertilization process where they are paired with high-dollar, high-terminal indexing beef bulls from Select Sires. The embryos are then frozen for later use. Howard said most collection occurs in the West and is from a western-type beef cow, which is a moderate-sized female weighing 1,200 pounds or less.
The embryo calves are turning out to be a short and stocky animal, but they are born weighing around 80 pounds, Elsinger said. The embryos are mated specifically for use in dairy cows with emphasis placed on calving ease.
The first beef embryo calves produced through Simplot’s partnership with Select Sires were born in Minnesota around 2018. Select Sires is Simplot’s exclusive distributor in the U.S.
Howard said Simplot works with either the dairy’s technicians or the co-op’s technicians to train them how to do embryo transfer.
Eric Gudex, an A.I. technician with Select Sires, has been putting in beef embryos since April 2023.
“It’s not a huge part of what I do, but it is a piece of the pie,” Gudex said. “I probably put in 75-100 beef embryos per month.”
About 90% of those embryos are Angus. Gudex is putting the embryos into Holsteins, and Elsinger is one of his customers. Like Elsinger, a few of his customers are using the embryos on repeat breeders to improve a cow’s chances of getting pregnant.
“Their value is getting that repeat cow bred, and the added gravy on top would be the value of that calf,” Howard said.
Several of Gudex’s customers are finishing these beef cattle while another is selling them as wet calves and earning about $100 extra per calf. For another one of Gudex’s customers, beef embryos are an experiment to stay ahead of the curve.
Jersey breeders are seeing the greatest difference in price for a straight beef calf versus a dairy-beef cross. Keeping in mind that pricing is region-specific, Howard said a Jersey-Angus or Jersey-Charolais cross is bringing $300-$500 for a day-old calf whereas straight beef calves from a Jersey cow are bringing $800-$850. This could be even higher in an eastern market, Howard said. Holstein crossbred calves are selling in the $800 range to as high as $1,000.
“(In the current beef-on- dairy calf market) it’s probably not as advantageous for a Holstein breeder to use beef embryos,” Howard said. “Most breeders retain these animals throughout the system and see that value in increased feed efficiency.”
The market outlook for beef cattle is promising, Howard said, with prices projected to remain high into 2026.
“The beef herd is not really rebuilding yet, and that has a major impact on those prices,” he said. “The dairy heifer shortage is another factor. I have heard we have at least 2-3 more years of seeing increased prices for calves.”
Howard is seeing Holstein breeders use beef embryos primarily on repeat breeders and to improve conception rates during times of heat stress. He said there are dairies seeing a 10%-15% increase in reproductive rates when using beef embryos instead of semen during heat stress.
“One herd’s conception rate was high enough that they adopted this practice across the herd in the summer to maximize value,” Howard said.
When creating embryos for use in Jerseys, Simplot uses high-indexing sires that have a low birth weight and high calving ease. When looking at birth weight in beef cows, Howard said if the Expected Progeny Difference is a negative number, such as -12, that would be considered a smaller birth weight than 0. On calving ease direct, if it is 0 versus 14,
the 14 is going to be much higher in calving ease than the 0.
“We use some bulls that are 14 or 15 for calving ease direct and negative 3 and 4 on birthweights for Jerseys, so they’re going to be much smaller calves,” Howard said. “These would be considered heifer bulls in the beef industry. For Holsteins, we can go with a little higher birthweight EPDs.”
Simplot can customize the breed composition of the embryos via the sire used if a volume requirement is met. Howard said for example they have a customer who specifically wants SimAngus embryos.
Elsinger’s use of embryos is limited, with only a couple of embryo calves born per month. Some months, a half-dozen embryo calves are born. The embryos Elsinger uses are sired by Black Angus and Red Angus bulls.
“We are focusing primarily on bulls that sire low birthweight and good feed conversion, as well as good carcass quality,” Gudex said.
The price differential in raising straight beef cattle versus crossbreds is something Elsinger said will be seen by her daughter who finishes several head of beef cattle per month.
Beef animals are raised to a certain age at Elsinger’s farm before moving onto pasture at her daughter’s place. The first group of straight beef went to pasture the week before Thanksgiving.
“That will be the telltale sign, to see if it will be more profitable on my daughter’s end,” Elsinger said. “That’s when we’ll find out what the finished product is going to look like versus a crossbred. We saw a difference in the first group that went out. They were shorter and stockier with a lot bigger frames. They were wide, not tall. This winter, we’ll see if they excel in hardiness, too.”
When considering if beef embryos are right for a dairy operation, Gudex said farmers need to know what their end goal is and how they plan to capitalize. He said the farm should have a solid reproduction program to start with.
“Most farmers probably benefit the most when looking to finish these animals themselves,” Gudex said. “The daily gain and cost to finish should be more efficient with a full-blood beef versus a crossbreed. The problem in the Midwest may be trying to find packers, as that is a small part of our world here.”
Elsinger feels cows are sticking around a little longer since using beef embryos, however, she said they are not far enough into the process to know for sure if a cow would have stayed or not.
“We’re hoping that with the extra effort we’re putting into keeping her around, it will make a difference,” she said.
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