As creating dairy-beef cattle grows as a trend within the dairy industry, farmers are looking to enter the beef market to gain an extra stream of revenue. This business expenditure raises the question of if there is a consumer interest for dairy-beef cattle and how the product interacts with the marketplace. A graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Alyssa Setiz, explored the depth of the market demand and how dairy-beef cattle fit into it.

The study evaluated two finishing treatments for dairy-beef cattle that were the same nutritionally but varied in duration. Both heifers and steers were included in the study, and after weaning at 35 days, they were assigned to one of the feeding treatments.

The difference in feeding treatments was in the initial body weight of the animals that received the diet. The light diet began feeding at about 500 pounds of body weight, while the medium diet was higher at about 700 pounds of body weight. The diet stopped when heifers reached 1,300 pounds and steers at 1,500 pounds.

Upon harvest, steers had a notably larger carcass when compared to the heifers, which is primarily due to their higher final body weight. The feeding regimes had no effect on body weight or measurements on either sex of cattle, while both finishing diets demonstrated ideal quality and yield grade characteristics without a heavy presence of liver abscesses. When observed for proximate composition, it was noted that the light finishing diet had significantly larger amounts of fat within the muscle in either sex of cattle.

The study tested consumer interest with meat quality and preference tests. This consumer-based survey did not account for the sex of the animal or feeding regime but compared the consumer’s preference for different beef samples, including Holstein, Angus, and dairy-beef samples in both raw and cooked forms. Ribeye and loin cuts were taken from the dairy-beef cattle raised in the study, and consumer responsiveness was tested with samples from Holstein and Angus cattle.

Due to a longer duration on the finishing diet, cattle on the light diet showed higher fat fractions on the rib primal. In the raw meat test, Angus scores were higher in all aspects of the study. Dairy-beef was scored as “very likely” to be purchased on the preference scale. After preparing the beef for the cooked test, consumers preferred the dairy-beef tenderness to either Holstein or Angus samples.

The consumer’s reference for product quality was set as the expectation they had for a beef steak served in a restaurant, and it was determined that dairy-beef animals met this standard. Dairy-beef has been proven to hold a successful standing in the beef market place, and growing consumer interest will only continue to raise that demand.