ECONOMICS OF CALF PRODUCTION WITH FOREIGN CATTLE BREED CROSSES IN THE SHORT-GRASS PRAIRIES

Abstract

The net farm income per Hereford-Angus unit dam (NFIPD) from calf production in the short-grass prairies was evaluated for calves of 31 three-breed crosses of foreign and British breeding. The data were from progeny produced near Manyberries, Alberta by utilizing Beefmaster and Red Angus sires for the first mating and Charolais (C), Simmental (S), Limousin (L) and Chianina (Chi) terminal sires for subsequent matings. There were 10 first-cross dam crosses consisting of Hereford (H) × Angus (A) as the control (HA), and nine dam cross combinations produced by mating C, S and L sires with H, A and Shorthorn (N) dams. There were 578 F1 females that entered the project, giving birth to 2079 calves and weaning 1866 calves during six consecutive years of the program. Rankings of the three-breed cross calves by NFIPD indicated that the L sire bred to a SA dam (LSA) and the C sire bred to a SA dam (CSA) returned the highest NFIPD. The next most profitable breed crosses were the LCN, LCH and CSH with NFIPD all within $15 of the LSA. The LH F1 dams were the least profitable with NFIPD up to $146 less than the LSA. The LH were followed by the LN and SN F1 female crosses for being unprofitable. The terminal sires ranked L = C > S = Chi, the breed of sire of dam ranked C = S > L, and the breed of dam ranked A > H = N. The primary determinants of NFIPD differences among the breed crosses were birth weight, preweaning average daily gain, conception rates, calf deaths, calving rate, difficult calvings, and daily digestible energy requirements for the dam. Key words: Economics, cow-calf, foreign breeds, prairies