After years of breeding crossbred calves for the lofty beef market, dairy producers appear to be slowly shifting their practices to breed more heifers. According to Sarina Sharp, analyst with the Daily Dairy Report, “U.S. dairy producers prioritized heifer calf production last year, setting the stage for an incremental uptick in heifer supplies in years to come. It’s possible that U.S. dairy heifer head counts reached their low for the current cycle last year.”
Last year, dairy producers bought 10.6 million units of gender-selected semen, a 6.5% increase from 2024, according to the National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) annual sales report. Gender-selected semen last year accounted for 64% of all dairy semen sales.
“Producers looking to stock their new or expanded facilities likely drove the increased focus on dairy semen,” Sharp said. “But record-breaking beef calf prices also incentivized producers to breed for the beef market.”
Despite the modest shift in breeding practices, heifer supplies will likely remain relatively tight, especially if some calves are exported. According to the report, international demand for replacement heifers is increasing opportunities for U.S. dairy producers to generate more heifers for export.
“The rise in gender-selected dairy semen sales last year was large enough to arrest a five-year decline in overall semen units, highlighting a modest shift toward making more heifers,” Sharp noted. “Relentless advances in artificial insemination technologies, genetics, and on-farm breeding practices have improved conception rates for cows inseminated with gender-selected semen, boosting the potential increase in heifer calf births.”
The NAAB report also noted that producers are genomic testing a larger number of cows so they can produce replacement heifers from their best animals using gender-selected semen. They then use more beef semen for the rest of their herd to produce high-value calves for feedlots. Last year, NAAB sold 1.7 million units of beef semen to beef producers and 8.1 million units to dairies, up from 7.9 million in 2024.
Both dairy heifer and crossbred beef calves are extremely valuable and will likely remain so in the foreseeable future, Sharp said. In April, newborn crossbred calves set an all-time high above $1,900/head. “With the largest dairy herd in more than three decades, the industry can simultaneously increase births of dairy heifer and beef calves,” she added.
