GENETICS

W. Mark Hilton, DVM, Diplomate ABVP - Beef Cattle

Rule #1: Fit your cows to your environment.

This concept seems so obvious but I have seen hundreds of examples where it hasn't worked. The major flaw is that someone has a cow that is overly productive for the environment that is available. An example of a good genetic mix for a Southern Indiana farm may be a cow that is 1/2 Angus, 1/4 Hereford, and 1/4 Gelbvieh where a high percentage Simmental would be very unrealistic for that environment. If you were in South Georgia, the idea cow might be 1/2 Beefmaster, 1/4 Red Angus, 1/4 Tarentaise. These are just examples. There are many combinations that would work fine. Study the traits of economic significance for your area and make decisions based on these facts. The genetic goal of the beef herd should be to have a herd of cows that will thrive in their given environment without large amounts of supplemental feed. We know that feed cost is the number one factor in profitability of the beef herd. So, if we're in the Midwest, we want a cow that can go out and survive on crop residues such as corn stalks for a good percentage of the winter. We want cows that, during summertime grazing season, are good foragers and can go out and take care of themselves on the forage that is available. We don't want to have to haul feed to the beef cows much of the year. That is a guaranteed formula for financial failure in the herd. One of my Grandfather's famous quotes was "If you don't waste a dollar, it's all profit". This fits beef cattle to a "T". Unfortunately, I see many, many times where people are wasting dollars on excessive nutrition because the genetics are not correct for the farm.

Rule #2: Buy you're bull for the market that you have.

What kind of calves do you want to produce? If you are trying to produce feedlot cattle that hit 70% choice with 70% yield grade 1 & 2, then you need to buy a bull whose calves will fit that market. There are many different grids available. There are many different targets for your cattle. Everybody does not need to be trying to produce the exact same kind of cattle. So, for the Southern Indiana cow example that we talked about, if you were retaining ownership of the calves into a feedlot and selling them on a grid that rewards lean meat yield with an acceptable percent choice cattle, maybe you would buy a Charolais bull. These calves would all be terminal cross calves, which means all of them, would go to the feedlot. The females would not be retained for breeding. If, on the other hand, you were producing replacement females for yourself and selling replacement females to other producers, your goal would be entirely different. Maybe a bull that is 1/2 Simmental and ½ South Devon would be the ideal for you so the resulting calf would still be just under 50% Continental genetics and just a bit over 50% British genetics. These are just examples, and many options are available.

Rule #3: Always have 100% crossbred cows in a commercial herd.

Heterosis is nearly free and cannot be overlooked. The initial research that showed that heterosis was beneficial was done in the 1930's. More than seventy years ago we knew crossbreeding was the right thing to do and today we are definitely straying from that knowledge. It is very disheartening to see that many producers are using the same breed of bull year after year. Examine the information below and you will see how important heterosis is to your herd.

Advantages of Crossbred Cows

• 2-6% increase in calf survivability
• 4% increase in feedlot growth
• 16-38% increase in longevity of cows
• 6% increase in weaning rate
• 9-23% increase in # calf weaned/cow exposed*
• 6-9% increase in weaning weight of calves*
• 25% increase in lifetime productivity of cows

There is no other management tool that is more efficient than crossbreeding for improving total calf production in a cowherd.

Research at Montana State University showed that on average a crossbred cow returned $70 per year more profit than a purebred cow, each and every year. So, in a 100 cow herd, that's $7,000 extra per year net profit.

*The "big picture" is that British breeds tend to be smaller, easier fleshing, fatter and have less muscle and more marbling. Continental breeds tend to be larger, harder fleshing, leaner and more muscular. This is why crossbreeding is so effective. We can combine the positives from both.*

CROSSBREEDING - HETEROSIS

Definition of crossbreeding: The combination of 2 or more breeds.

Definition of heterosis: The superiority of the crossbred animal as compared to the AVERAGE of the parents. Heterosis is the same as hybrid vigor. Heterosis has the greatest benefits on more lowly heritable traits. For example, fertility is a lowly heritable trait, so crossbreeding can be very helpful for a herd with fertility problems. On the other hand, ribeye area is a very highly heritable trait, so you would get very little benefit to ribeye size simply by crossbreeding.

In crossbreeding you get increased amounts of hybrid vigor the more diverse the breeds you use. So, if you cross two British breeds like Angus with Hereford, you gain a moderate amount of heterosis. But if you cross that Angus to a Gelbvieh, which is a Continental breed, you would gain even more hybrid vigor. But, if you crossed that same Angus with a Brahman which is Bos indicus instead of Bos taurus, this would produce the most hybrid vigor. Just like everything in beef production, we are not targeting maximums. We want optimum hybrid vigor for the herd. You just need to know that you have increasing hybrid vigor the more diverse the breeds. That is why it is advantageous to use some Continental genetics in most herds and, as you go to the south, some Brahman-type genetics.

COMPOSITES

Definition of composite: A complex material such as fiberglass in which two or more distinct, structurally complimentary substances combine to provide some properties not present in any individual component.

Definition of composites in cattle: A carefully planned combination of complimentary breeds designed to produce a uniform offspring.

I think it's extremely important that uniform offspring is a goal and the reality of using composite cattle. Composite (some people still use the word crossbred, which is different) is a step beyond crossbreeding. An example of a composite is a Beefmaster. A Beefmaster is 1/2 Brahman, 1/4 Shorthorn, and 1/4 Hereford. The Stabilizer or the MARC II is also a composite that is 1/4 each of Red Angus, Hereford, Simmental, and Gelbvieh. There are many other composites now emerging as we find that these are ideal for many situations. The American Gelbvieh Association has trademarked the term "Balancer" for their composite of Angus and Gelbvieh (must be ¼ - ¾ of each breed). The main reason composites have become more popular is that you can maintain a fairly consistent percentage of breeds that fit your environment. You can buy a composite bull of genetics that you have found that fit your herd year after year instead of vacillating between more extremes. So instead of a two, three or four breed rotation, you simply buy a bull that's exactly what you want in the end. My prediction is that 20 years from now, you'll see more composite bulls sold than purebreds. The swine industry has gone that way in the last 20 years and the poultry industry has been that way for a number of years. So, for an example, you may find that a 1/2 Angus, 1/2 Gelbvieh cow is ideal for your beef cattle business. What do you use on this cow to maintain this 1/2 British, 1/2 Continental mix that you feel is ideal? Answer: You have to use a composite bull. What composite would you pick?

In the Midwest, most studies would show that a cow that is 1/4-1/2 Continental and 1/2-3/4 British genetics is an ideal combination. These two diverse biological types are ideal in optimizing heterosis for crossbred cows. In a recent study of a large number of fed cattle, finished cattle sold on a muscle plus marbling grid were broken down into quartiles based on profitability. In the highest profit quartile of this study, 63% of those cattle were of Continental/British cross genetics. If it were just a random scatter they would only have amounted to 33% of the group. Interestingly enough also, in the lowest quartile of profitability, 63% of these cattle were either straight British which tended to be too fat with poor growth, or straight Continental which were poor marbling or had excess carcass weight. So, instead of the two extremes, we need to combine the two diverse genetic components and have that be our ideal.

Herd genetics have a large impact on herd productivity and profitability. Fit your cows to your environment, buy bulls for your market and always have 100% crossbred cows.