Selection for Profit in Cattle: II. Economic Weights for Dairy and Beef Sires in Crossbreeding Systems

Abstract

The relative economic importance (economic weights) of 18 traits was determined for Holstein and Charolais sires used in a dairy production system applying cross-breeding with beef sires and in a cow-calf pasture cross-breeding system with integrated fattening of surplus animals. A bioeconomic model containing a profit function was used for the calculations in both systems. Discounted expressions for direct and maternal components of the traits during an investment period of 25 yr were calculated using the gene-flow technique. The relative economic weights for some traits or trait components of the dairy sires differed substantially between the purebred and crossbred dairy systems. There were also meaningful differences among the relative economic weights of traits for beef sires, depending on whether these bulls were used for terminal crossing with F1 females in the cow-calf pasture system (back-crossing), for crossing in dairy herds producing slaughter animals, or for crossing in dairy herds producing F1 females for the cow-calf pasture system. We therefore recommend construction of specific sets of subindices for dairy and beef sires to allow users to rank the bulls according to expected merit of their progeny in specific production systems.

Search for quantitative trait loci affecting growth and carcass traits in a cross population of beef and dairy cattle1

“…The 95% confidence interval (95%CI) for the most significant association identified on this chromosome, the total bone proportion after commercial dissection, is indicated with a narrow box on the x-axis. within breeds, they could have a direct application to the terminal crosses to beef bulls performed in dairy herds (Wolfová et al, 2007). The use of experimental crosses also increases the chances of identifying QTL, which helps to build up knowledge of the genetic control of phenotypic variation and serves as the starting point for identifying the genes that have a direct effect on traits of economical interest.…”

The use of crossbreeding with beef bulls in dairy herds: effects on calving difficulty and gestation length

“…A common European practice in dairy production is to inseminate dairy cows with semen derived from beef cattle if the calves will not be used for milk production on the dairy farm (Sørensen et al, 2008;Dal Zotto et al, 2009). Wolfova et al (2007) have established a superior financial value from the meat of dairy and beef crossbreeds when compared with pure dairy cattle.…”

Genetic analysis of productive and reproductive traits in multiple-breed dairy cattle populations

“…The practice of crossing different cattle breeds aiming milk yield has increased due to the possibility of improving reproductive (Dhakal et al, 2013;Yao et al, 2014) and adaptive traits (Berman, 2011). These crossings also contribute to increase the productive and economic performance of the production systems (Wolfová et al, 2007;Dal Zotto et al, 2009).…”