Crossbreeding is a very useful tool to improve performance. It is widely used in cattle to improve milk production.

When breeding is done between two different breeds is called crossbreeding. If an bull of high milk producing breed (like Holstein) meted to a low milk producing cow (like any non-descriptive indigenous breed), the offspring will produce more milk then her mother.

This is a genetic upgrading. I will try to discuss it as easy as possible, so that people without having knowledge of genetics can understand it. Here is an example to explain how crossbreeding improve production.

Let a high yielding breed XX gives 100 L milk per day and an indigenous breed YY gives 2 L milk per day. Now we want to improve the milk production of YY breed. Now if we cross them, the new offspring will get 50% productivity from her mother and 50% productivity from her father. Her mother’s (YY) productivity is 2 L/day, so 50% of 2 L is 1 L and her father’s (XX) productivity is 100 L /day, so 50% of 100 L is 50 L. So in 1st generation, they will get genetic potentiality to produce 51 L milk per day (1 L from mother + 50 L from father). Let named the first generation as G1.

Now if we cross male of XX breed and female of G1, the offspring will again get 50% productivity from her mother and 50% productivity from her father. 50% of her father’s (XX) performance is 50 L and 50% of her mother’s (G1) performance is 25.5 L (51/2 = 25.5). So, the offspring will get genetic potentiality to produce 75.5 L milk per day (50 L form father + 25.5 L from mother). Let named this generation is G2.

Similarly if we again cross male of XX breed to the female of our crossbreed (G2), it will produce G3 with genetic potentiality to produce 87.75 L milk per day. Crossing with G3 will produce G4 with genetic potentiality to produce 93.875 L milk per day. Crossing with G4 will produce G5 with genetic potentiality to produce 96.9 L milk per day. Crossing with G5 will produce G6 with genetic potentiality to produce 98.5 L milk per day. Crossing with G6 will produce G7 with genetic potentiality to produce 99.25 L milk per day, which is quite similar to XX breed.

In this way, crossbreeding can help to increase production performance. It’s also very easy for people to upgrade their animal by crossbreeding. One more thing, I have avoided many technical terms and much other technical information to make this post easier to all users.

 

 

 

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this was interesting, thanks for posting it.

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Having raised cattle for beef, the same principal is true in the production of better quality meat. The first cross always seems to produce the best quality cuts of beef or veal depending on slaughter time. Michigan State University has proven this principal over and over again in their cross breeding experiments over many years.

We tried our own experiment and crossed a Limosine bull on a Jersey heifer to get a dual-pupose cow, like the Durham (Milking Shorthorn). Our attempt was thwarped by the birth of oposite sex twins, however. For those of you who don't know, opposite sex twins in cattle are sterile. Since the heifer was not fertile, we couldn't breed her for the milk. We did end up with delicious steaks, tho. Both of the offspring got their size from the Limosine which made for plentiful meat supply. We were able to get some supply of milk from the Jersey mother even while she was nursing her twins. She seemed to produce plenty of milk for all of us.

Thanks for the explanation about cross breeding. Seeing it in layman's terms for a change helps.

 

 

 

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