Crossbreeding offers potential in commercial herds

Beef production in the U.S. is an ever-changing and evolving industry with the cow/calf sector poised in the driver’s seat to trigger industry progress.

Dr. Bailey Engle, research geneticist at the U.S.



Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., says there are two main industry challenges rising in significance that producers should be aware of as they make breeding and genetic decisions for their herds – feedlot health and cow efficiency. Engle is quick to point out, neither of these challenges are new problems for the industry.

Feedlot health has been important for many years with management and health practices leading to huge advancements. The same goes for cow efficiency. However, Engle articulated, the industry is changing, and the changes may be highlighting these standby issues even more.

“Feedlot health is becoming more important because feedlot death rates have been increasing. Part of the reason this is happening is because we are feeding cattle longer. More days on feed is contributing to more death loss,” she explained.

Days on feed are increasing largely because of the consumer’s demand for more meat, which in turn has forced the industry to produce more pounds of meat with less animals. Furthermore, the extra fat and tallow created on these heavily fed carcasses is being mixed with imported lean trimmings to make hamburger meat. Feeder cattle are getting really big and really fat, and their bodies are having a hard time maintaining that weight and extra metabolic stress, and therefore late-stage feedlot deaths are becoming a bigger money suck for the cattle industry as a whole.

“We need to be thinking about breeding cattle that can sustain those weights and those additional days on feed. One of the ways we can do that really rapidly is through crossbreeding,” Engle said. Like feedlot health, cow efficiency has been long researched within the industry, but its relevance is even more important now as input costs continue to increase.

The high cost of production necessitates a bigger focus on per head profit versus operation revenue. The terms are similar, but profit takes into account what it costs to gain the revenue. Think of it this way: revenue comes from the calf while profit comes from the cow.

So, revenue-driven breeding selections would key in on maximizing terminal traits like weaning weight or carcass weight, while profit-driven breeding selections make decisions based off of maternal traits like stayability and fertility. Furthermore, one of the biggest efficiency-drivers in a cow/calf system is cow size. Ideally, a cow should wean 50 percent of her body weight, and if she doesn’t, she is leaving a lot of genetic potential on the table.

To be able to measure this, producers must actually know what their cows weigh. It is absolutely paramount for producers to make sure they are running the size of cow that works for their operation and input system. It takes a lot for a big cow to maintain herself.

It takes even more for a big cow to maintain herself and wean a big calf. One of the consequences of a too-big cow is something always ends up giving, be that pounds of the calf or cow fertility and either give point is money lost for an operation. The easiest, fastest way to achieve cow efficiency is through – you guessed it – crossbreeding.

Crossbreeding allows for heterosis, or hybrid vigor, which is defined as the additional performance over the expectation of purebred parents. In cattle, heterosis produces a measurable advantage when compared to purebred genetics with crossbred cattle displaying a 5 percent increase in traits like weaning weight, yearling weight or carcass weight, and between a 10 and 30 percent increase in traits like reproduction and health/fitness. It is possible, according to Engle, to address both feedlot health and cow efficiency at the same time within a herd using balanced selection.

One way to attain it is through a three-way crossbreeding approach – taking an F1 female and out-crossing her to a bull with desirable terminal traits. In this scenario, heterosis is being used to increase cow efficiency via the F1 female and heterosis is addressing feedlot health by producing a calf that has increased immune function and is genetically better equipped to handle current feeding demands. “I strongly encourage producers to consider crossbreeding because the potential benefits are huge and there are a lot of diverse breeds in this country with characteristics that could easily and quickly help a producer achieve their goals,” Engle said.

While Engle may encourage crossbreeding, she admits there is no “one size fits all” solution for producers and their operations. She feels it is important for producers to make decisions that are best for their unique operation. “There are so many different paths to the same destination,” Engle concluded.

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