Best Crossbred

[RobertMac]

We have purebred black angus cows and hefiers and I am wondering what the best breed to cross them with to add pounds and still produce fertile hefiers and still have black calves or black baldies.

Find a black angus linebreeder...the outcross heterosis will add pounds and improve fertility and still have black calves.

 

[andybob]

Does anyone run reds as their base herd, and use black bulls to achieve the CAB requierments?

It depends on what kind of red cows and what kind of black bulls you are talking about, if you want to meet the CAB requirements. Hide color guarantees nothing. CAB is a marbling program, if you have premium Choice level of marbling under a black hide, then you'll get your CAB carcass. How do you get that?? Hint: Angus bull with some marbling potential. It's not just a "black" program, but a black program with some strings attached. Total of 10 carcass specs listed here: http://www.cabpartners.com/facts/index.php Capitalizing on one of the strengths of the Angus breed, marbling. Other breeds have it too, obviously the Red Angus breed is extremely good for marbling.
It's not quite as simple as painting cattle black, as much as some folks would like to believe it to support their own biases. Lots of naysayers want to discount the most important component, carcass merit.
HP

When I lived in NC, I familiarised myself with the CAB requierments as it made sense to me to breed mainly red cattle in my herd as many potential customers were selling through the CAB market.
When I was visiting Briggs genetics in 2004, they were still involved in the Wagyuli breeding program, the heifers were kept to breed back to the Wagyu, most of the steers attained CAB standards.
The two breeds I mentioned in my previous post are well marbled in their own right, and cross well with Aberdeen Angus, as does the Tuli for Southern environments, in places where Bos Indicus genotypes are docked for 'ear'.
We breed native Aberdeen Angus and Hereford here at Laverstoke Park, selling direct to top restraunts through our on farm abattoir, with a premium paid for quality and 'organic' status.
There is a very stringent Angus marketing scheme here, whereby all eligible cattle have to be sired by a registered Angus bull, thus ensuring sales of bulls and semen for Angus breeders.
The Scotch beef trade mark is possibly the oldest Aberdeen Angus marketing scheme, selling highly marbled barley fed pure Angus steers and heifers.