Beef Cattle Crossbreeding Systems

crossbreeding involves mating systems in which more than one breed of cattle is used a major advantage of crossbreeding is heterosis also known as hybrid vigor with individual heterosis crossbred calves perform better than the average of their straight bred parents maternal heterosis is an important type of heterosis this is heterosis in the crossbred dam maternal heterosis is the increase in average production observed in cross bred females compared to straight bred females another major advantage to cross breeding is breed complementarity this is the ability to combine performance for traits from two or more breeds into one animal free complementarity should carefully consider the contributions of each breed to the mating a very basic crossbreeding system is the to breed terminal cross in this cross females from breed a are mated to sires of breed T all calves are then marketed these calves should be a uniform type progeny the system involves one breeding pasture and once I breed however replacements must be purchased and there's no maternal hybrid vigor involved calves out of this mating are called F ones or first generation crosses the three breed terminal cross is similar to the to breed terminal cross except that f1 females are used in the mating f1 females are then mated to a third breed and all calves are marketed replacement females must be purchased but maximum hybrid vigor is achieved the to breed rotational cross takes advantage of both individual and maternal heterosis females sired by breed a are made it to sires of breed B and likewise females sired by breed B are then made into sires a breed a this system requires sires good for producing both replacement females and market camps to bruiting pastures are needed along with two side breeds and for practical purposes the herd size needs to include at least 50 head to be efficient with this system the three breed rotational cross is very similar to the to breed rotational cross except with another breed added into the rotation the major benefit of the three breed rotation over the to breed rotation is the increase in hybrid vigor however an additional breeding pasture is needed as well as an additional Sabri the minimum practical efficient herd size for using this mating system is at least 75 head of breeding age females a three breed roto terminal system is an extension of the to breed rotational system it is also known as a to breed rotation with terminal sire system a percentage of the breeding females are placed in the to breed rotation and another percentage are mated to a terminal side the roto terminal system uses aspects of both the terminal program and a rotational program this system allows the breeder to produce all of his or her own replacements it also makes use of hybrid vigor and the terminal cabs side rotation is a commonly used crossbreeding system one breed of sire is used for four to six years and then the cyber breed has changed the system can use two or more breeds depending on the goals of the producer it's simple in that it only uses one breeding pasture and one breed of sire at a time this makes it very convenient for small breeders to use implementing a well-designed crossbreeding system is an important management practice on commercial cattle operations for improving profitability such a system should be used to take advantage of breed complementarity and heterosis while also fitting the herd size and resources of the operation

Channel: MSUBeefCattle

Views: 56,908

Keywords: beef cattle, extension, animal science, mississippi state, crossbreeding, mating systems, cattle breeding, heterosis, hybrid vigor, breed complementarity

Id: 0uL5ksQwyQE

Length: 4min 24sec (264 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2012