Table 1.

How dairy farmers in the Northeast use beef semen in breeding dairy cattle

	Cows1	Heifers	Both cows and heifers
How do you decide which animals are bred with beef semen?	n = 214	n = 19	n = 225
Genetics	20.6%	26.3%	37.3%
How do you determine which animals are bred with beef semen based on genetics?	n = 42	n = 5	n = 80
Net merit	33.3%	20.0%	30.0%
Genomic panel	23.8%	80.0%	15.0%
Sire catalogs	16.7%	40.0%	16.3%
Advice from semen sales representative	16.7%	40.0%	15.0%
Other	42.9%	0.0%	48.8%
Lower producing cows	55.6%	0.0%	66.2%
How do you determine which cows are lower producing?	n = 110	n = 0	n = 140
Net merit	6.4%	N/A	1.4%
Bottom 10% of lactation	28.2%	N/A	26.4%
Bottom 20% of lactation	27.3%	N/A	29.3%
Bottom 30% of lactation	20.9%	N/A	17.1%
Bottom 40% or 50% or lactation	9.1%	N/A	12.9%
Other	8.2%	N/A	12.9%
Females that are hard to get bred to dairy bulls	74.3%	47.4%	79.1%
After which service do you determine that a female is hard to breed?	n = 159	n = 8	n = 172
After the 2nd service	15.7%	25.0%	16.9%
After the 3rd service	47.8%	50.0%	48.3%
After the 4th service or later	28.3%	25.0%	21.5%
Other	8.2%	0.0%	13.4%
Other	11.2%	31.6%	15.6%

¹These responses represent a crosstabulation of questions. The first question asked respondents to select the type of animal they breed to beef semen, either cows, heifers or both cows and heifers. Responses to a series of question regarding how those females were selected make up the percentage of responses. Respondents could select all of the choices that applied their operations; thus, response rates exceed 100%.