How to manage dairy beef production

Explore how to manage dairy beef production, including nutritional guidance for different beef rearing systems, preparing and selecting animals for slaughter and how to market and sell dairy beef.

With the right resources and skills, you can produce good-quality dairy beef for meat consumption. Surplus dairy-bred male calves in particular can prove a useful option for rearing and finishing.

As with all production systems, careful management is needed to ensure you stay on the right side of profit and loss when finishing black and white cattle.

You should identify a market or customer first and then produce animals to suit their specific needs.

When considering rearing and selling dairy-bred beef, you should think about:

• Identifying a target market for the beef
• Budgeting to check financial feasibility
• Building relationships with a new set of customers
• Monitoring performance as the animals grow
• Avoiding price penalties due to poor handling or health
• Presenting clean animals
• Hitting the right specification for conformation, fat class and weight

Success with producing beef depends on running a system that suits the animals, the farm, and the customer’s requirements.

As with all cattle, good-quality colostrum is essential at the start of a calf’s life to ensure it achieves greater growth rates and requires fewer veterinary visits.

Adequate nutrition and housing throughout all stages of life are important to produce cattle that meet market requirements.

These web pages walk you through the dairy beef production systems you might want to consider, along with each of their pros and cons and what management is needed to help guarantee success.

We’ve also provided helpful hints on potential health issues and guidance on preparing and selecting animals for slaughter.

Considering rearing dairy cattle for beef production? Explore how to choose a dairy beef rearing system that works for your farm, together with the pros and cons of each system.   

Identifying a target market is the key to successful cattle finishing. Learn more about how to plan, monitor and market dairy beef to help you turn a profit.

Success with rearing dairy beef depends on sourcing the right type of calves for the right price. Find out how to source dairy calves for beef production and the essential health checks you should be doing.   

Read our essential guidance on how to manage new dairy beef calves, including vaccination checks and advice on reducing stress and minimising the spread of disease.

Explore our nutritional guidance for dairy beef calves, including advice on milk replacers, starter feeds, weaning and managing other changes in feed.

The growing and finishing phases of beef production require careful management of feed to get the best returns. Read our nutritional guidance for growing and finishing dairy beef.

If you are considering the veal market for your dairy beef, your calves will need to be less than eight months old at slaughter. See how to produce veal from dairy-bred calves and how good decisions on feed can give you better returns.

Rearing dairy beef heifers and steers allows you to make use of low-quality pasture, and they are much easier to manage than bulls. Learn more about the options available for your dairy-bred cattle.

Bulls can be reared for beef on a cereal-based diet or, if you have home-grown forage available, silage and cereal. Learn more about how to rear dairy beef bulls, including nutritional guidance and how to handle bulls safely.

Following a health plan, agreed with your vet, will help to prevent disease from developing. Learn about the essential health checks for growing and finishing dairy cattle. 

Beef carcase in the UK is classified according to an animal’s conformation and fat levels. Learn how to select dairy beef cattle for slaughter and our handling guidance to maintain the quality of meat.

If you would like to order a hard copy of the Dairy beef production systems manual, please contact publications@ahdb.org.uk or call 0247 799 0069.