Commercial Producers Can Use Crossbreeding to Improve Profit and Sustainability

by Kansas State University Cow-Calf Extension Specialist Bob Weaber, Ph.D.

The dramatic changes and volatility cow-calf production system input costs and calf values have many producers wondering about the value of heterosis in today’s beef industry pricing structure. Many producers are seeking ways to improve cow-calf production efficiency and profitability. Profitability may be enhanced by increasing the volume of production (i.e. the pounds of calves you market) and/or the value of products you sell (improving quality). The reduction of production costs, and thus breakeven prices, can also improve profitability. Better yet, improving the input:output ratio should enhance profit. Moreover, the improvement of production efficiency from crossbreeding improves beef’s sustainability. A variety of production metrics and sustainability measures benefit by producing more head and calves and pounds of beef per unit land area or calorie consumed at the enterprise level. Positive changes in cow longevity, reproductive rate and calf performance from heterosis effectively reduces maintenance energy requirements per pound of beef produced. Dilution of maintenance costs of the cowherd improves sustainability in both the environmental, through more efficient land use, and profitability areas.

For commercial beef producers, the implementation of technologies and breeding systems that increase the quality and volume of production and reduce input costs is essential to maintain or improve the competitive position of the operation. Some producers are thinking of establishing a more conventional straight breeding system to improve end-product value traits and want to understand the value they are giving up as they sacrifice heterosis, while other producers are considering the establishment of a planned crossbreeding system to capture the value of hybrid vigor. Either way, to make an informed decision, producers need to know the value generated in their herd by heterosis or hybrid vigor.

To fully understand the trade-offs, it is essential to know what it is you sell and how you sell it. The lure of premiums for high-quality beef carcasses is appealing; it gets a lot of trade publication promotion and it can be profitable. No doubt growing the top-line of the beef value chain and satisfying customers is important. That said, if you are a producer that sells calves at weaning, you have very limited opportunity to capture the value of selection pressure you place on end-product quality at the expense of other traits or loss in heterosis. It is also true that even if you own the cattle to harvest and are paid on a grid, you only get a fraction of the value of the improvement, albeit bigger than the calf premium. Conversely, the value of heterosis affects every cow on your outfit and it is value that you can capture every year no matter how you sell calves. More importantly, it’s not a $20 or $40 or $60 premium per head you might get for selling calves or carcasses – the heterosis premium is much, much more.

Why crossbreed?

The use of crossbreeding offers two distinct and important advantages over the use of a single breed. First, crossbred animals have heterosis or hybrid vigor. Second, crossbred animals combine the strengths of the parent breeds. The term ‘breed complementarity’ is often used to describe breed combinations that produce highly desirable progeny for a broad range of traits.

What is heterosis?

Heterosis refers to the superiority of the crossbred animal relative to the average of its straight bred parents. Heterosis results from the increase in the heterozygosity of a crossbred animal’s genetic makeup. Heterozygosity refers to a state where an animal has two different forms of a gene. It is believed that heterosis is the result of gene dominance and the recovery from accumulated inbreeding depression of pure breeds. Heterosis is, therefore, dependant on an animal having two different copies of a gene. The level of heterozygosity an animal has depends on the random inheritance of copies of genes from its parents. In general, animals that are crosses of unrelated breeds, such as Angus and Brahman, exhibit higher levels of heterosis, due to more heterozygosity, than do crosses of more genetically similar breeds such as a cross of Angus and Hereford. Inclusion of a Bos indicus fraction in a crossbreeding system generates about three fold as much heterosis for some traits as does a comparative Bos taurus breed.

Heterosis generates the largest improvement in lowly heritable traits. Moderate improvements due to heterosis are seen in moderately heritable traits. Little or no heterosis is observed in highly heritable traits. Heritability is the proportion of the observable variation in a trait between animals that is due to the genetics that are passed between generations and the variation observed in the animal’s phenotypes, which are the result of genetic and environmental effects. Traits such as reproduction and longevity have low heritability. These traits respond very slowly to selection since a large portion of the variation observed in them is due to environmental factors and a small percentage is due to genetic differences. Heterosis generated through crossbreeding can significantly improve an animal’s performance for lowly heritable traits. Crossbreeding has been shown to be an efficient method to improve reproductive efficiency and productivity in beef cattle.

Improvements in cow-calf production due to heterosis are attributable to having both a crossbred cow and a crossbred calf. The two tables below detail the individual (crossbred calf) and maternal (crossbred cow) heterosis observed for various important production traits. These heterosis estimates are adapted from a report by Franke and others, 2001 and 2005, and summarize crossbreeding experiments conducted in the southeastern U.S.

Why is it so important to have crossbred cows?

The production of crossbred calves yields advantages in both heterosis and the blending of desirable traits from two or more breeds. However, the largest economic benefit of crossbreeding to commercial producers comes from having crossbred cows. Maternal heterosis improves both the environment a cow provides for her calf as well as improves the longevity and durability of the cow. The improvement of the maternal environment a cow provides for her calf is manifested in the improvements in calf survivability to weaning and increased weaning weight. Crossbred cows exhibit improvements in calving rate of nearly 15% (table 2) and an increase in longevity. Heterosis results in increases in an increase in weaning weight per cow exposed of more than 30% (table 2) for crossbred Bos taurus by Bos indicus cows. Crossbreeding can have positive effects on a ranch’s bottom line by not only increasing the quality and gross pay weight of calves produced but also by increasing the durability and productivity of the cow factory. Crossbred cows maybe the only free lunch in the world.

The effects of maternal heterosis on the economic measures of cow-calf production have been shown to be very positive. Scientists have understood the value of heterosis for some time. Using prices from the 1990s, the added value of maternal heterosis ranges from approximately $50/cow/year to nearly $100/cow/year depending on the amount of maternal heterosis retained in the cowherd (Ritchie, 1998). Maternal heterosis accounted for an increase in net profit per cow of nearly $75/cow/year (Davis et al., 1994). Their results suggested that the benefits of maternal heterosis on profit were primarily the reduced cost per cow exposed. Crossbred cows had higher reproductive rates, longer productive lives, and required fewer replacements than straightbred cows in their study. All of these factors contribute to reduced cost per cow exposed. Further, they found increased outputs, including growth and milk yield, were offset by increased costs.

A variety of crossbreeding systems yield 20-30% improvements in weaning weight per cow exposed not including the additional value generated through sire selection within breed. This represents a substantial change in output given relatively constant input. Simple examples using current calf pricing and a conservative 23% increase in weaning weight per cow exposed using a terminal sire/F1 (two cross) cow can generate approximately $150 additional revenue per cow per year. I’m not aware of any set of calves that have generated carcass premiums of $150 premium per cow exposed regardless of breed or grid. In today’s calf prices the value of heterosis for a herd of 100 cows is roughly $15,000 per year and represents a decrease in breakeven costs of more than $28/cwt on 600 lb calves.

How can I harness the power of breed complementarity?

Breed complementarity is the effect of combining breeds that have different strengths. When considering crossbreeding from the standpoint of producing replacement females, one could select breeds that have complementary maternal traits such that females are most ideally matched to their production environment. Matings to produce calves for market should focus on complementing the traits of the cows and fine tuning calf performance (growth and carcass traits) to the market place. Inclusion of Bos indicus breeding via a cross or composite system adds substantial amount of heterosis generating capacity, but also adds thermal and other stress tolerance.

There is an abundance of research that describes the core competencies (biological type) of many of today’s commonly used beef breeds. Traits are typically combined into groupings such as maternal/reproduction, growth and carcass. When selecting animals for a crossbreeding system, their breed should be your first consideration. What breeds you select for inclusion in your mating program will be dependent on a number of factors including the current breed composition of your cow herd, your forage and production environment, your replacement female development system, and your calf marketing endpoint. All of these factors help determine the relative importance of traits for each production phase.

What are the keys to successful crossbreeding programs?

Many of the challenges that have been associated with crossbreeding systems in the past are the result of undisciplined implementation of the system. With that in mind, one should be cautious to select a mating system that matches the amount of labor and expertise available to appropriately implement the system. Crossbreeding systems range in complexity from very simple programs such as the use of hybrid genetics, which are as easy as straight breeding, to elaborate rotational crossbreeding systems with four or more breed inputs. The biggest keys to success are the thoughtful construction of a plan and the sticking to it! Be sure to set attainable goals. Discipline is essential.

A well-constructed crossbreeding system can have positive effects on a ranch’s bottom line by not only increasing the quality and gross pay weight of calves produced but also by increasing the durability and productivity of the cow factory. As you make your decision to straight-breed or cross-breed make sure you don’t give away a couple hundred dollars per cow to make a $20-60 premium per calf sold at market or on the rail when you can go for both!

Should you need more information or advice on the merits of various crossbreeding systems please download the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortiums ‘Beef Sire Selection Manual’ and see chapters on breed and composite selection and crossbreeding systems. It is available in its entirety or by individual chapters here: http://www.nbcec. org/producers/sire.html. You may also contact me directly at my office: 227 Weber Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. I can be reached by phone at 785-532-1460 or email at [email protected].