Charolais, Friesian and British beef sires for beef production in a Mediterranean environment

Abstract

British beef breed cow herds, located in the Adelaide Hills and upper south-east areas of South Australia, were mated to Charolais, Friesian and British beef breed sires in two consecutive years. Calving performance of 477 cows and growth and carcase characteristics of the progeny were examined. Assistance at calving was given in 2.7 per cent of the total number of Charolais calvings, 0.7 per cent of purebred calvings and none of the Friesian calvings. The percentage of stillborn calves, and calves dead within twenty-four hours of parturition, sired by Charolais, Friesian and British breed sires was 5.3, 4.6 and 3.7 per cent respectively. Charolais - and Friesian-cross progeny had similar growth rates in both the pre- and post-weaning periods but both crossbreds grew significantly faster than the purebred British breed progeny. When slaughtered at 8 to 10 months of age, Charolais-cross steers yielded significantly more meat than the purebred steers, but at that age, both the Charolais- and Friesian-cross carcases were often too lean (range in depth of backfat of 0.10 to 0.54 cm) to be suitable for the Adelaide market. We concluded that Charolais and Friesian crossbred progeny grow faster and mature later than British breed progeny in the environment studied here, and that both breeds may prove valuable as terminal sires in systematic crossbreeding programmes.