Cross Breeding increases profits

Australian beef producers are currently experiencing increasing production costs on the back of price rises for both fertilizer and diesel. At the same farmers are receiving lower prices for their beef. Farm managers therefore need to make sound management decisions to ensure their enterprise remains profitable and may need to increase productivity.

Crossbreeding is an established breeding method used in beef cattle breeding to increase overall productivity. It has been used throughout the world and there is ample evidence to support the production gains possible from crossbreeding. In many cases crossbred progeny outperform the average of their parent breeds. This phenomenon is known as hybrid vigour and occurs when unrelated breeds or lines are crossed. “The extra performance observed through hybrid vigour is simply the recovery of production losses that occurred through inbreeding in the parental breeds”, according to Dr Stephen T Morris Institute of Veterinary Sciences, Massey, New Zealand. “The greater the difference between two breeds, the greater the resultant hybrid vigour.”

Beef producers need to maximize the amount of beef produced per hectare and cross breeding is one method of increasing calf weights. Crossbreeding leads to increased performance without any added costs or inputs.

Research conducted by John Bertram of DPI in QLD, shows that an 8.5% increase in weaning weights is common when crossing 2 different breeds. On a 300kg calf this would mean an extra 25kg at $1.60kg adding about $40 to each calf.

Crossbred calves in most cases are also more vigorous than straightbreds leading to better survival and increased calf crops.

The good news for WA beef producers is that there are many beef producers who still have not capitalized on the increased performance available to them via crossbreeding. Beef producers who run low maintenance, British breed cow heads like Angus and Murray Grey, could increase their weaning weights and profits by using a powerful, heavily muscled outcross European bull like a Blonde or Charolais. With an estimated extra of $40 per calf, a bull mating 50 cows will return the farmer a handy $2000 per bull each year.

The breeding of replacement heifers, however, needs to remain in focus when switching to a bull of a different breed. Producers may choose to purchased these heifers or one same breed bull must to retained and bred to select females to produce replacement heifers each year. This bull would ideally have good maternal traits and display high milk EBVs, as his progeny would be destined as future breeders.

Using high performance, heavily muscled Euro bulls over British breed females will give the additional advantage of increased muscling in the crossbred calves. The costly problem of producing over finished heifers will also be addressed and due to the higher muscle score these crossbred calves will attract a premium, further increasing the profitability of the beef enterprise.