A comparison of purebred Holstein-Friesian and Holstein-Friesian × beef breed bulls for beef production and carcass traits

Authors

• Arto Kalevi Huuskonen MTT Agrifood Research Finland
• Maiju Pesonen MTT Agrifood Research Finland
• Hilkka Kämäräinen Savonia University of Applied Sciences
• Risto Kauppinen Savonia University of Applied Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.7781

Keywords:

beef production, breeds, bulls, carcass characteristics, crossbreeding

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine beef production traits of purebred Holstein-Friesian (Hol) and Hol×beef breed crossbred bulls. The data collected from slaughterhouses included observations of 87323 purebred Hol, 783 Hol×Aberdeen angus (Hol×Ab), 621 Hol×Blonde d’Aquitaine (Hol×Ba), 562 Hol×Charolais (Hol×Ch), 349 Hol×Hereford (Hol×Hf), 1691 Hol×Limousin (Hol×Li) and 570 Hol×Simmental (Hol×Si) bulls. For estimating valuable cuttings also a separate dataset was collected and included observations of 8806 purebred Hol, 57 Hol×Ab, 29 Hol×Ba, 22 Hol×Ch, 15 Hol×Hf, 111 Hol×Li and 58 Hol×Si bulls. Crossbreeding Hol cows with late maturing breeds (Ba, Ch, Li, Si) had favorable effects on carcass gain, conformation and proportion of high value joints of the progeny when compared to purebred Hol bulls. No advantages in proportion of valuable cuttings seemed to be obtained by crossbreeding with Ab or Hf breeds, while the improvements in gain and conformation were intermediate compared to the late maturing crossbreds.