How now, beef cow? - virtues of various beef cattle breeds - part 1

Agricultural Research, Nov, 1991 by Sandy Miller Hays

How Now, Beef Cow?

In the beginning, there were Longhorns, and they were tough.

Tough in more ways than one: Able to fend for themselves in the wild, equipped as they were by nature with dual daggers, and sinewy enough to survive the dusty treks between distant water holes on the American range.

Described by one observer as "meatless, milkless, and murderous," these hooved ghosts from the days of Spanish conquistadors nonetheless provided the foundation for the infant U.S. commercial cattle industry's first exploration of the joys of heterosis.

Known more simply as hybrid vigor, heterosis is the biological phenomenon that allows crossbred offspring to outperform the average of their parents. As 19th-century American consumers began seeking steaks that could be politely chewed rather than gnawed, the rugged Longhorns were crossbred with stylish Shorthorn cattle from Scotland.

To this genetic marriage, the Shorthorns brought overall improvements in mothering ability, weaning weights of calves, and herd disposition as well as quality of beef. The Longhorns in turn bestowed their legendary hardiness.

Far from satisfying once and for all the demands of the American cattle rancher, the Shorthorn/Longhorn combination of the 1800's simply took the first step on a long and continuous road to customized cattle. The merits of various breeds--or combinations of breeds--are still a hot question among cattle producers and researchers alike.

At the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska, animal scientist Larry V. Cundiff has spent two decades evaluating a veritable rainbow of beef breeds, from the familiar dark Angus to the white-tailed Pinzgauer.

"MARC actually began these evaluations in 1969," notes Cundiff. "There was an obvious opportunity, in that all sorts of new breeds were being introduced in the United States--Limousin from France, Simmental from Switzerland--and we had a new facility with the land and feed production capability needed to evaluate them."

Using either Hereford or Angus females, the two dominant beef breeds in the United States in 1960, Cundiff and others with USDA's Agricultural Research Service have evaluated more than two dozen different breeds of sires hailing from Europe, Africa, India, and South America.

The program focused first on crosses with Jersey, South Devon, Limousin, Charolais, and Simmental sires in Cycle I, from 1970 to 1972, and Red Poll, Brown Swiss, Gelbvieh, Maine Anjou, and Chianina sires in Cycle II from 1973 to 1974.

Cycle III, in 1975 to 1976, saw calves from Hereford or Angus mothers and Brahman, Sahiwal, Pinzgauer, or Tarentaise sires. Cycle IV, 1986 to 1990, featured Salers and Charolais sires from France, Galloways from Scotland, Nellores from South America, Piedmontese from Italy, Gelbvieh from Germany, and Pinzgauer from Austria, as well as the old standbys, Longhorns and Shorthorns.

Cycle V, begun last June, used semen from the Tuli and Boran from Africa, the Caracu from Brazil, the Belgium Blue from Belgium, and a repeat round with the Italian Piedmontese.

Each cycle also included purebred Herefords, purebred Angus, and Hereford/Angus crossbreeds. In addition, the female crossbred offspring from the various matings have been bred to Brahman, Devon, Holstein, Santa Gertrudis, or Brangus sires.

"In each sample, we tried to evaluate a large number of biological types, depending on the availability of sires," Cundiff explains. "We like to use 20 to 25 sires per breed."

One conspicuous distinction: Bos indicus, including the humped cattle common to tropical countries, is generally slower to mature than Bos taurus, which includes the domestic breeds common to the temperate zones such as England and continental Europe.

"Here at MARC, the Bos indicus breeds we've evaluated include Nellore, Brahman, and Sahiwal," says Cundiff. "They're very slow to reach puberty. This can be a problem if you want your females to calve as 2 year olds."

Grouping the breeds by biological type on the basis of growth rate and mature size, lean-to-fat ratio, age at puberty, and milk production, Cundiff has uncovered some other noteworthy differences.

For example, retail product weight of beef at 458 days of age has hovered at 410-420 pounds for the Red Poll-Devon-Hereford/Angus group, compared with 470-500 pounds for the Limousin-Charolais-Chianina group.

But on the question of marbling--the interwoven fat generally associated with tenderness--the Limousin-Charolais-Chianina group scored lowest.

Leading in marbling scores was the relatively diminutive Jersey and the Devon-Red Poll-Hereford/Angus grouping, with scores above 11, compared with 8.3 for Chianina and 9 for Limousin.

"Among breeds, there's a great opportunity to produce cattle to provide two types of beef," says Cundiff.

"On the one hand, you can grow beef that's low in fat and caloric content and more suited to the customer who wants to limit intake of saturated fats.

"But you can also grow highly marbled beef that's well suited to the gourmet food trade. The genetic diversity out there offers all kinds of options."