Crossbreeding beef cattle boosts performance and productivity by mixing genetics, leading to better weaning weights, reproductive efficiency and overall herd health. Often, the practice is reserved for females, but more seedstock and commercial producers are turning their eye toward males to identify potential benefits and profit opportunities.
Composite bulls are produced through the mating of crossbred parents, typically resulting in animals with a consistent percentage of a desired mix of multiple breeds over generations of planned and selective breeding.
Matching breeds to the environment and farm goals
“The first thing producers should think about when considering using a composite bull is: The breed makeup must match the environment,” says Felipe Carvalho da Silva, an assistant professor and extension beef specialist at North Carolina State University. “The second thing is to have a goal in mind of exactly what they want for the operation. Are they focused on pounds of beef on a carcass, feeder calves or something else? It’s critical to understand the significance of aligning the breed’s genetics with the cow herd and the specific objectives to help meet breed and genetic merit goals.”
Adding heterosis is always beneficial. Crossbred males and females should consistently adapt to suit the environment and marketing plan, and produce calves to match maternal or terminal purposes.
Partnering composites with the operation
Da Silva suggests utilizing composite breeds is an effective strategy to gain benefits.
“By running these composite breeds as straightbreds, successful crossbreeding is much easier to implement, allowing the advantages to follow quickly,” he explains.
For producers typically selling weaned calves, crossbreeding improves performance.
“Performance at weaning is enhanced by breeding complementarity, like crossing a British breed cow herd with a sire from a continental breed,” says da Silva. “Additionally, it boosts maternal productivity.”
For those raising replacement heifers, different, more complicated crossbreeding and management schemes are typically necessary.
“For example,” says da Silva, “matching Angus with Charolais is great for terminal crossing with a finishing goal down the road, but not always suitable for raising replacements.”
Da Silva adds that composite sires may be attractive to commercial operators using a rotational system for marketing their animals and raising replacement females, as it allows for the flexibility of diverse matings.
“It’s important to keep in mind when looking for the benefits of crossbreeding using composite breeds, the effects are slightly diminished compared to when we use crossbreeding from straightbreds,” he says.
Highway 21 Group offers both purebred and composite bulls to its commercial cow-calf customers. Courtesy image.
Diverse trait benefits without the risks
“One of the coolest things about crossbreeding is it impacts various traits differently,” da Silva says. “Traits with low heritability experience greater heterosis impact, while those with high heritability see minimal change. This is exciting because traits like longevity, reproductive fertility, maternal ability and herd health, which are difficult and time-consuming to attain in more mainstream purebred systems, are the traits that will be impacted the most with crossbreeding.”
He refutes the notion of crossbreeding being overly risky.
“The benefits of crossbreeding for better performance in heavier weaning and carcass weights and reproductive efficiency and longevity are well established. What holds people back is often the preference for black hide color and the complexity of managing breeding records,” he explains. “Modern practices like artificial insemination simplify crossbreeding management. It’s such a powerful strategy, but unfortunately, it’s not always used or applied as it should be.”
Highway 21 Group composite bulls
The Highway 21 Group of Acme, Alberta, has been selling composite bulls for years to a variety of customers.
“The number one thing our composites offer our clients comes around to the free lunch of heterosis that everybody knows about,” says Highway 21 Group co-owner Lyle Miller. “When using purebreds, we’re not getting heterosis from the sire side of the equation. With the increased heterosis of using composites, we’re capitalizing on delivering extra growth and improved fertility, which is the easiest and most dominant benefit.”
Miller notes the heterosis customers realize varies depending on the bull. Highway 21 veterinarians use DNA to score each of their bulls with a heterosis and hybrid vigour score. Index scores are based on the ancestry and breed makeup of each animal.
“Benefits stem from crossbreeding, which provides a balanced approach to improving both growth and reproductive traits while delivering more information for buyers to select the best bull suited to their needs,” Miller says.
The unpredictability of traits and genetics is decreasing as breeds advance their genomic testing abilities and the accuracy of expected progeny differences (EPDs). Breed associations utilize these technologies to offer better selection tools than ever before. With the use of DNA markers, data collection systems and strict recordkeeping, Highway 21 is confident they’re providing equivalent tools with their composites.
“I think the same level of trait variability occurs in my purebreds and composites,” Miller says. “For example, all breeds have calving ease and non-calving ease bulls. It comes down to the information provided, which we work especially hard on and do a better job of than most. It’s how the information is used to narrow down the choices between product variations, whether it’s on purebreds or composites.”
Miller suggests any operation could benefit from one of his composite sires, as he believes he has bulls to fit any program. He counters the idea of drawbacks.
“There are good ones and bad ones,” he says. “We cull some and keep some in all our breeds. Just like our purebreds, we select first for temperament and functionality – feet, udder, legs, phenotype – then measure feed efficiency. Composites will become more prominent in our operation. I’ve been selling about 20 each year, but this year I could have sold double with the growing demand.”
The future of crossbreeding
Da Silva envisions an increased function for crossbred bulls, especially in adapting to environmental changes. He advocates for leveraging their use to boost performance and reproductive efficiency across the beef industry.
Da Silva underscores crossbreeding’s transformative potential and believes there is room for all types of breeding systems, including composites. By matching and aligning breeds with the environment, and embracing modern management practices, producers can significantly enhance the performance and productivity of their herds through the benefits of heterosis, whether it occurs on the male or female side.
