Cross Breeding??

[Beef Man]

Some of you know me and most of you don't. So a quick resume: I'm old school cattle man, way back in time, when we shipped a load of feeder cattle to the commision firm's in Sioux City,OMaha. St Paul, Denver, etc etc and we sent a black Baldy they cut them out and sold them seperate{called them dairy cross's] This held true if the rest were all black or all white faces[ which 95 % were inthose days]. Being a son of a cattle trader I got to be a owner of quite a few od ball crossbreds. Anyway as time moved on and a few continetal's showed up,our colledge profs. entered the picture cross breeding became the normal wayto produce our better doing feeder cattle. No dissagrement there! But what has always puzzeled me is why or rather how did it always be the sire that got all the credit? My question is and has been always "did or doe's the dam of a calf have anything to do with hetarosis? Because as soon as crossbreeding became the norm it was always the sire breed that was so much better than the straight bred sire. Hence when it was disscovered that Angus bull whiteface cow cross all the credit went to angus bull and or simintall,maine, geilbvee saleir chianina etc,etc. A good friend tothe cattle industry asked me one time at another good friend's angus bull sale where all the croos breds would be if they would'nt have had the old hereford cow to cross with?? It was old Leo Macdonald [ who started the original Midland Bull test at GDAR sale] Anyway to get back to my original thoughts and question where are we as an industry going with so much and many cross's and it is a puzzle especially to me who grew up with the idea to produce uniformity .It being the first and greatest impo rtance to a load of feeder cattle. Also a real matter of pride to the producer and used to be the old time feeder. Sorry I'm so longwinded but have attempted to explain where I'm comeing from and why!! Really wonder what those old time cattle traders and real cowmen would say if they could veiw this mess we have now.No pride, mongerilization, and I'll just cross breed anything and it'll be allright. Come on Boy's and Girl's get real and tend to business, lets get our industry back on track.

 

[robert]

Crossbreeding requires discipline to achieve consistency, when there were only 3 breeds ( angus red or black, hereford and shorthorn) of similar biological types it was pretty easy to maintain type. Add to that they were functionally maternal breeds. Now with hundreds of combinations, virtually no linebred parent stock for consistency in any of the" breeds" therefore no prepotency. An almost child-like "ooh look at that latest greatest" attitude to sire selection and you have Heinz 57 varieties cowherds.

 

[Beef Man]

Where will we end up with this kind of attitude?? Why? Almost seems like we are shooting a few of our toes off and still maintaining our balance and speed! all just such a puzzle to me!

 

[robert]

sorry you completely lost me now, are you arguing for straightbreeding? Attitude?

 

[cow pollinater]

Where will we end up with this kind of attitude?? Why? Almost seems like we are shooting a few of our toes off and still maintaining our balance and speed! all just such a puzzle to me!

I see what you're saying. My take on it though is that we have no heterosis without crossbreeding so even though everyone is crossing everything with angus now, there will still be a demand in the future for straitbred cattle because crossbreeding doesn't give anyone any advantage if everything is related.

 

[Galloways1]

Use 100% full blood genetics on the crossbred cowherds and you will regain heterosis.

 

[SRBeef]

I am currently trying to create a herd of "pure" Hereford cows. Only as few of mine are registered rest are good commercial Herefords. I retain one best Hereford bull calf to use as a yearling each year in a planned "linebreeding" I also use a registered Hereford purchased bull each year.

I was pleasantly surprised at a recent cattle meeting I attended to hear the speaker advocating doing exactly that - keep your best bull calf each year and breed him back to spread the genes that fit your system and also "lock in" some genetic prepotency as mentioned.

After I get to my target herd size I may try a different breed registered bull for a year or two to test that heterosis out. But will also retain my best "pure" Hereford calf to continue to breed replacement cows. fwiw.

Jim

 

[Beef Man]

sorry you completely lost me now, are you arguing for straightbreeding? Attitude?

No not nessarily straightbreeds as we all know that there is a definite benefit in a crossbred. M y meaning is what are we really proveing by just breeding a odd ball crossbred to another mixed bred animal? Also trying to explain why It is also confuseing to me. Love to see a load of real genuine f1's and knowing who raised them had a definite plan and the feeder would have a chance to finish them as a group and turn a bit of profit.