Crossbreeding Fact Sheet

Interest in crossbreeding has been steadily increasing.  Commercial producers want to know what to expect when crossing two or even three breeds together.  However, crossbreeding is not an exact science.  Research is being conducted to help predict the outcome of crossbreeding.

This Fact Sheet looks at the advantages and disadvantages of crossbreeding.  It provides first generation projections when crossing Holsteins with other breeds and provides other considerations for future generations of crossbreeding.

Crossbreeding Advantages

• The opposite of inbreeding - hybrid vigor (heterosis) is real
• Fitness traits (i.e. fertility, calving ease, stillbirths etc.) tend to have the greatest benefit from hybrid vigor
• Opportunity to increase components of milk-beneficial in component milk pricing schemes                                                                                                                            

Crossbreeding Disadvantages

• Loss of milk production
• Lower value for animals (dairy or slaughter value)
• Genetic improvement limited to breed improvement (small populations = less selection intensity = less improvement)
• Loss of uniformity of herd - cow size differs making it more difficult to feed properly and increases challenges in providing good cow comfort. In some parlors, differences in size of cows can be very challenging.

Considerations

• Projections based on using identical genetic level of sires (+400 LNM$ Holstein or +400 LNM$ Jersey). This may not be practical or even possible across breeds due to sire levels differing across breeds.
• Red breeds have profit potential when milk payments resemble more component pricing.
• When future generations (F2, F3, etc.) are examined within the three different index markets it appears:              -Fluid Merit (Milk paid on volume and fat) - the purebred Holstein is superior to any crossbred combination.
  -Cheese Merit (Milk paid on protein and fat and discounted volume) - a three breed rotation of Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss produces optimal results.
  -Net Merit (Milk paid on protein and fat and neutral volume) - a two breed rotation maximizes the index; Holstein must be one breed and Jersey or Brown Swiss should be the second breed.
   
  •  Genetic gain for the different breeds is not taken into consideration when projections for F2 and beyond were calculated. In general, as breed population increases, and more importantly as number of sires sampled increases, the greater the genetic gain and larger opportunity exists for extremes (more sires with high indexes).