Crossbreeding

From BIF Guidelines Wiki
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Crossbreeding is a specific mating system that involves mating sires of one or more breeds to females of one or more breeds, with at least one of those breeds that is not in the sire breed make-up. This could be as simple as mating an Angus bull to Hereford cows or as complicated as a multi-breed rotational crossbreeding system for replacement females with a terminal cross sire component. Crossbreeding allows producers to take advantage of heterosis and breed complementarity. These concepts are discussed in great detail, along with specific crossbreeding systems in Crossbreeding for Commercial Beef Production and Breed and Composite Selection in the NBCEC Sire Selection Manual. Additional information on breed differences for many traits can be found in the eBEEF factsheet Comparison of Production Levels Among US Beef Breeds