Abstract

The economic value of crossbreeding in beef cattle has been reviewed and substantiated. However, most of the crosbreeding research has involved breeds specialized and accepted for beef production. The most important economic character improved by crossing of beef breeds is fertility. It has been concluded that reproductive efficiency is of low heritability, affected positively by heterosis, and is primarily dependent on management regime (particularily post-calving energy level). Within the last few years, beef producers of the United States have become interested in increasing milk production, in order to obtain heavier calf weaning weights. The purpose of this research was to determine the production level and response to various environmental influences of beef-dairy crossbred cows used in a terminal sire crossing program. The characters measured in this study include reproductive efficiency, pre-weaning calf growth rate, post-weaning weight gain and carcass desirability, and other characters reflecting total production

L. L Wilson, J. H Ziegler, J. B Washko

Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Volume 3, Madrid, Spain, 851–856, 1974