The beef-on-dairy era has supercharged demand for sexed semen

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — For Holstein Association USA CEO Lindsey Worden, the position is one of stewardship and progress, not reinvention. “We’re governed by dairy farmers, for dairy farmers. The board sets the course, and our staff carries it out,” she says. “My role is to make sure we do that as effectively as possible.”

Ask her about the future, and she starts at the foundation: animal identification.

“Any decision making on the farm starts with that,” she says. “Data has value, and animal ID is foundational to everything else.”

From there, the roadmap is simple and practical: official 840 tags (with RFID as best practice), Basic ID to get lineage recorded for non-registered herds, seamless genomic testing, and then selective registration for the females that will seed the next generation.

“We’re not trying to get a 5000-cow herd who has never worked with us before to start registering every calf that’s born on day one,” Worden relates. “Focus on your high-end genetics. Register the seedstock of the next generation and make sure you’re using sexed semen on the right cows.”

ID isn’t only about breeding. It’s market access and resilience: “If there ever was a traceability situation, if you’ve got registered Holsteins or identified animals with the Holstein Association, you’ve got that built in,” she says.

The beef-on-dairy boom brought challenges and opportunity as it reshaped calf crops.

Worden is direct about the tradeoffs Holstein USA felt when beef semen use spiked after 2017—fewer pure Holstein heifer calves meant fewer registrations.

But she’s equally clear about the upside: farms gained a second revenue stream.

“If the U.S. dairy industry is healthy, and if our dairy farmers are having healthy profits, that’s going to spell good things for the Holstein Association,” Worden observes. “When farmers have money to invest, they invest in genomic testing, registration, those value-added things.”

Her invitation for balancing the two calf crop streams is precise. The top 30–50% of females ranked by genomics, performance, and cow family become seedstock mothers and get sexed Holstein semen. The rest go terminal, bred to beef sires with calving ease and carcass merit that fit the Holstein frame.

“It’s more important than ever that dairies know who their cows are and breed the right cows to sexed semen,” she says. “The next (heifer) isn’t just there anymore. You have to protect your future.”

Holstein’s HolSim collaboration with the Simmental Association gives farmers a vetted list of SimAngus beef bulls designed for dairy matings. Worden recalls the first Facebook post that featured a beef cow. “We definitely got some negative feedback on that,” she reflects, but her stance remains practical.

“We’re not necessarily promoting beef on dairy, but we’re recognizing it’s a big part of our industry. We can stick our head in the sand or be a good source of information for our members,” Worden explains.

She also warns against complacency: “We know the beef herd is probably going to rebound at some point. We’re probably not going to be getting $1400 for a wet calf forever. When prices stabilize, the herds that are paying attention to quality and documentation will be the ones rewarded.”

Meanwhile, Holstein’s Marketplace Sires keeps growing as a “boutique” channel with roughly 20 bulls at a time that are screened for pedigree depth and genomics, including sexed options and niche goals (polled, Red & White, elite show pedigrees), plus a HolSim-ranked beef bull. Large herds buy from it too when the fit is right. Breeders continue to own their bulls in this program.

“We try to have a little bit of something for everybody,” she says, “But we’re very picky because we only keep so many bulls.”

The beef-on-dairy era has supercharged demand for sexed semen. “Farmers really don’t want to use as much conventional semen,” she observes. “Our Marketplace Sires program had to pivot. Sexed semen is expensive to collect, but sales showed us we needed to provide it because that’s what farmers want.”

The key, she emphasizes, is using sexed semen on the right cows, which brings the conversation back to animal ID and next generation genetic services to see how they stack up with herdmates and in the national herd book.

For Worden, genomics isn’t a buzzword — it’s leverage. Through a partnership with Zoetis, Holstein offers testing tools, but the real edge is Holstein’s comprehensive database.

“We have the data on all of our members’ cows already — ID, classification, production, genomics. They don’t need to upload or email anything. That’s why I’m excited about our next-generation mating tools,” Worden explains. “We can use all the data they already have, without extra effort.”

The payoff shows up in the trendlines: “The genetic progress we’re seeing in Holsteins is leapfrogging, and the gap keeps widening.”

One example Worden cites is McCarty Family Farms in Kansas. What was once a large grade herd with no ID (some descended from the original small registered herd decades ago in Pennsylvania), they began tagging calves, testing genomically, and registering their animals, and today they are the largest Registered Holstein herd in the country.

“McCarty’s story has been remarkable,” she reports. “They use all the tools in the toolbox and are crystal clear about their goals. They just sold their first bull to AI a few months ago, through IVF matings we worked with them on.”

The progress was stepwise over a period of years: “We talked years ago about basic genetic auditing. A few years later, they had some special calves. Then we said, this next generation is when you’ll be ready to market genetics. And they did.”

What sets them apart? “They’re not afraid to ask questions, to be vulnerable, and to really use their industry partners.”

Not every farm can or will replicate that pace, but the model for a non-registered herd — ID, genomics, selective registrations, purposeful advanced matings, and marketable genetics — is replicable.

It’s an invitation, she wants every producer to hear, especially for herds that feel “behind.”

Step one, she repeats, is ID. “Any decision on the farm starts with knowing who that animal is. That’s the bread and butter. Everything else layers on top.”

Data has value, and all of this hinges on trust. Worden is emphatic: “Our position is that the farmers own the data and we are stewards of that data.”

Sharing with the Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) or other partners happens under formal agreements for defined and identified purposes, and Holstein has invested in cybersecurity and offline backups.

The Association is involved in other collaborations. It classifies for Guernsey, Ayrshire, and Milking Shorthorn, provides herdbook software to Guernsey and Brown Swiss, and manages daily operations for the Ayrshire Association.

“Trust is massive. Members and partners need to know we’re the best stewards we can be,” she says. “We’re uniquely positioned as an unbiased third party. We’re the only producer-facing organization that pulls in classification, genetic, and production data together.”

Worden also mentions the generational shift on larger dairies, where the next decision-makers may not have grown up showing calves, which changes the business conversation.

“What can we bring to the table?” Her answer is a package that’s both modern and familiar: easier workflows, cleaner data, better matings, stronger calves, and the discipline to register the animals that drive the future.

She’s also watching succession dynamics closely. “There are young people who want to dairy, but their parents aren’t ready to retire or there’s no room. At the same time, we have retiring members without kids taking over. If we can help connect those dots and keep farms in dairy, that’s something we’ve definitely talked about.”

Worden’s optimism is rooted in people as much as cows. Youth programs remain a point of pride. “Even if they don’t choose dairy as a career, the skills go with them. They’ll still be advocates for Holstein and dairy,” she suggests.

At the end of the day, it comes back to the Holstein cow and the tools around her that are evolving to match the moment and its potential. In short, it’s a focus that’s a lot like Worden, herself, competitive and precise, while grounded in service.

“I see nothing but opportunity,” she says, “because of the genetic power of our cow and the programs that help farmers use it… and the roles both our cow and our Association will play in meeting the world’s demand for protein into the future.”