Sire Breed Influence of Various Beef Breeds on Calving Performance, Growth Rate, Feed Efficiency, Carcass and Meat Quality

Summary

The improvements that can be obtained in regard to efficiency and quality by crossbreeding dairy cows with bulls from beef or dual purpose breeds are discussed.

The discussion is based on results from a beef x dairy crossbreeding project in which 15 European beef or dual purpose breeds were tested as sire breeds in crossbreeding with Danish Red, Danish Friesian, and, to a lesser extent, Jersey cows.

When crossbreds were tested in intensive young bull production, the highest growth rates were obtained by Charolais crossbreds, which had approximately 9% higher growth rate than young bulls of “dairy” type. Highest carcass quality was obtained from crossbreds after breeds represented by double-muscled bulls (Piedmont, Belgian Blue-White, and Blonde d’Aquitaine), but also Limousin crossbreds had very high carcass quality.

The high birth weight of crossbreds from large framed beef breeds with very high growth capacity causes calving difficulties, if these breeds are used for crossbreeding with cows of large dairy breeds. The best suited beef breeds for crossbreeding to large dairy breeds are consequently Limousin or Piedmont.