Eastern Ontario farmers impregnate dairy cows with beef semen and embryosNelson ZandbergenFarmers ForumEMBRUN — Sexed semen technology allows Ontario’s dairy herds to produce hybrid beef cattle but the technology can be a double-edged sword. The Indian River Cattle Company beef breeder Billy Elmhirst observed that dairy cattle also offer the innate advantage of higher fertility rates. He suggested that dairy producers theoretically had the capacity to “devastate” Ontario’s traditional beef producers, though Beef Farmers of Ontario President Jack Chaffe doesn’t see it that way. Nor did he see any tension between traditional beef producers and dairy farmers that produce beef as a sideline in a free market. Chaffe pointed out that dairy-cross beef animals are a little different than purebred beef and that there are “advantages and disadvantages” to them.

Source: CBC News December 15, 2022 10:02 UTC