Crossbreeding has long been proven that it will make commercial cow/calf operations more efficient and thereby more profitable. By crossing two pure breeds, making an F1 hybrid, an additive effect takes place to increase weaning weights by 10 to 15%. There are also other benefits that add to the bottom line including cow longevity, breed back ability and total pounds of calf weaned per cow.
Although there are definite, measureable benefits to the 3 way terminal cross system (making F1 females and breeding them to a bull of a 3rd breed) the planning and implementing of this program can be very difficult and cumbersome for the cow/calf operation. How many management groups you have to have and which breed of bull to put in what pasture with which cows to keep the 3 way cross going are just a couple of them.
Now there is a much simpler way. Documented research shows the use of two crossbred animals, or two hybrids, in a breeding program producing 2nd generation F1 calves (called F2’s in our program), to be as effective for maintaining hybrid vigor at the same level as 1st generation F1 calves (called F1’s in our program). This simply means that using Hybrid bulls on a set of crossbred or hybrid cows will generally produce as much hybrid vigor as the crossing of two straight bred animals without the complications of a 3 breed rotation system.
Since 2002 we at McBee Cattle Company have been producing a Braunvieh/Angus Hybrid animal to help our commercial customers simplify their breeding and production programs.
Called the McBeef Builder Hybrid, they are made from our best purebred and fullblood Braunvieh cows mated to some of the best Angus genetics we could find, through both natural breeding and artificial insemination. We have some purebred cows in the herd that have produced the top indexing bull in the purebred group one year and the top McBeef Builder Hybrid bull the next year. In our Hybrid program we feel it is important to continue to make our cattle more uniform and consistent in the good traits. From our experience so far, we think we are on the right track by using our best F1 bulls on our F1 females to make 2nd generation F1 hybrids (which we call F2’s). We are now getting some 3rd generation hybrid calves to compare and they are uniform and consistent enough to make us want to continue what we are doing.
F1 River Hills 2323P
McBeef Builder F1 458P
Group of F1 and F2 McBeef Builder Hybrid Heifers
Some of our customers have been using McBee bulls for over 20 years. After keeping 1/2 blood and 3/4 blood heifers for replacements and continuing to use our Braunvieh purebred bulls, their hybrid vigor benefit was suffering. Thus, the need for us to produce our Hybrid bulls and females. You are able to turn our McBeef Builder Hybrid bulls in any pasture with your crossbred or hybrid females and manage your entire cowherd in one group, if you prefer, and still maximize hybrid vigor.
We have also had customers with a mostly Angus based commercial cowherd that were seeing very little benefit from hybrid vigor when they used Angus bulls on their cows. Obviously, a set of crossbred black cows are influenced mostly from Angus. A purebred Angus bull used on those cows is only multiplying the percent of Angus blood in those calves. Those customers also benefited greatly from the use of a McBeef Builder Hybrid or a Purebred or Fullblood Braunvieh bull. Using a Purebred bull on your crossbred cows will make your 1/2 blood crossbred replacement heifers, then the need for the Hybrid bull for the next generation. If the purchase of a Purebred bull is too much for your nerves to bare, then we have still made it easy for you to take advantage of hybrid vigor ( increased weaning wt and cow longevity ) with our Hybrid bulls on your black crossbred cows.
