Abstract:
Crossbreeding in the southern Australian beef industry has been recognized for some time as being a tool to increase productivity (Morgan et al. 1992). Selection of sires based on objective measurement has been refined with the development of BREEDPLAN, with the result that the combined effects of genetic changes on each beef-producing herd has been estimated at $9,170 per year for the last 30 years (MLA 2002). The relative genetic merit of candidates for selection in breeding programs is now widely available, with sires having the highest/optimum ranking for the chosen trait/traits usually being chosen. Currently across-breed evaluation is not available. Assumptions rather than direct comparisons of a sires estimated breeding value (EBV) are used to compare sires across breeds.
