Introducing “SDX”. 23% More!!

Who can ignore to benefits of cross breeding to add profit.

We’ll use the South Devon female as the base and add other breeds and crosses to compliment. Initially we have used Sim/Angus (CCR Boulder) and Stabilizer (LCoC 18 Karat and Paringa N669) sires over South Devon females.

Stabilizer

The Stabilizer breed is a multi-breed composite developed by Leachman Cattle Company. The breed is based on research done by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) at their Animal Research Service (ARS) at the Meat Animal Research Centre (MARC), at Clay Centre, Nebraska. 

The Stabilizer breed is a blend of British and Continental inputs including: Angus, Red Angus, Simmental, Gelbvieh and South Devon. The Breed combines the fleshing ability, marbling, and moderate size of the British breeds with the muscle, milk, and growth of the Continental breeds. As a four breed composite, the Stabilizer retains 75% of the F1 hybrid vigour and thus allows producers to crossbreed with simplicity.

The MARC (Meat Animal Research Centre) started a project in 1973 called the Germ Plasm Utilization (GPU) project. Their research showed several advantages that come from crossbreeding. Most importantly they showed that hybrid vigour has a large impact on beef cattle productivity. The research demonstrated an 8% improvement in weaning weight when a purebred cow is mated to a bull of a different breed. The research also showed that crossbred cows are far more productive than purebred cows. The benefits came in multiple areas including more milk production, better body condition, faster re-breeding, and a longer productive lifetime.

In total, the crossbred cows weaned 23% more weight than did purebred cows.

Historically, crossbreeding requires the use of complicated mating systems to keep the hybrid vigour effect. Scientists designed rotational systems using three breeds. However, such systems were too complicated. Furthermore, they resulted in wide swings in breed composition, and prevented breeders from having a uniform, well adapted herd. As an alternative, the researchers at MARC developed multi-breed composites. Their study confirmed that such composite breeds retain hybrid vigour in proportion to the number of breeds used – using more breeds generates more retention of hybrid vigour. The Stabilizer (Marc II composite), with four breeds, retains 75% of the F1 hybrid vigour. Thus, breeders can breed composite bulls to composite females and keep most of the available hybrid vigour without the complexity and loss of uniformity associated with crossbreeding.