Hybrid Bull VS Purebred

[Black an Gus]

Hello farmers/ranchers of cattle today. I currently own 40 purebred Black Angus cattle and 7 Angus/Hereford F1 crosses. I was planning to purchase a nice stocky horned Hereford bull next year and eventually produce a 3 way cross Angus/Hereford/Fleckvieh to make replacement heifers and marketable feeders.

I came across some nice Fleckvieh/Hereford hybrid bulls that Mac Creech produces and now I'm thinking about potentially going that route instead to get my desired 3 way cross. I understand I would be missing out on some Heterosis, but I do like the idea of the progeny being half Angus and a quarter Hereford and Fleckvieh.

Here is a video of this years Hybrid, or H2 Bulls as he calls them.

https://youtu.be/UYKOSSkbxl0

Please give me your honest opinions on these bulls and weather you think using them would be a good idea. Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[gaurus]

F1 Bulls will produce as much heterosis as F1 cows genetically, but F1 Cows are better mothers than pure cows and this will translate to better, fatter healthier calves, let me check on the bulls you mentioned.

 

[Supa Dexta]

They sell a pile of crossbred bulls of different mixes. No doubt you could find something you like there.

 

[RanchMan90]

Looks good as long as you dont mind some red calves.

 

[Black an Gus]

F1 Bulls will produce as much heterosis as F1 cows genetically, but F1 Cows are better mothers than pure cows and this will translate to better, fatter healthier calves, let me check on the bulls you mentioned.

You make a couple of good points!

They sell a pile of crossbred bulls of different mixes. No doubt you could find something you like there.

Have you bought any MC Quantock bulls yourself Supa Dexta? I would like to know if they last or not and if they are easy to maintain.

 

[Black an Gus]

Looks good as long as you dont mind some red calves.

I like looking at Black cattle more but I know red calves will make just as much money. They have been in Northern Alberta lately anyways.

 

[Lazy M]

Thick, muscled-up dudes. I like them (and would probably try one), but will defer to all the experts here on the genetic merits

 

[Caustic Burno]

Lot more uncertainty in a hybred bull over a set of cows versus the other way around. Never know what is going to climb out of the DNA woodpile as you do with a standardized composite.

 

[gaurus]

Lot more uncertainty in a hybred bull over a set of cows versus the other way around. Never know what is going to climb out of the DNA woodpile as you do with a standardized composite.

I remember reading that with a composite breed like Brangus you lose about 50% of the heterosis that you would gain doing a breed a x breed b, but is this also true for composite breeds like Beefmasters that are 50/50?


I would also like to add that using a composite bull would also produce more heterosis than pure breeds, but I don't know how much less than F1 bulls.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Beefmaster is a 3 way composite 1/2 Brimmer 1/4 Hereford 1/4 SH roughly according to Lassiter who developed them.

The F-1 cross isn't always best some crosses yield as high as 20% heterosis Hereford Brahman cross and low as 6% on Angus x SH cross.
Lots of data from the Ag universities as to which breeds compliment each other.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Have you bought any MC Quantock bulls yourself Supa Dexta? I would like to know if they last or not and if they are easy to maintain.

No, but one thing for sure is you western guys have a very large pool of great quality to choose from. Some pile of bulls sales on the go out there at the moment. That said, them selling nearly 500 bulls a year they must be doing something right to keep those numbers moving each year and bothering with the crosses.