WHAT ARE COMPOSITE BEEF CATTLE?

What are Composite Beef Cattle
Harlan D. Ritchie, Michigan State University, says in the Cattlemen, Oct 1994:

1. What is a composite?  A generally accepted definistion would be:  “ A population made up of 2 or more component breeds, designed to retain heterosis, (hybrid vigor) in future generations without crossbreeding, and maintained like a pure breed.”
2.   What are the advantages for commercial producers?  Compared to traditional rotational cross breeding systems, composites are attractive to commercial herd owners for the following reasons:  1.  Less cumbersome to manage; 2.  Easier to manage under intensive short-duration grazing systems; 3.  Avoids the wide swings in biological type (size, milk, carcass composition, etc.) that often occur from one generation to another in rotational systems, thereby helping reduce mismatches between biological type and the production environment and between biological type and market specifications; 4.  Can help overcome certain genetic antagonisms like lean yield and marbling because such traits can be balanced rather precisely when the parent breeds are selected; and 5.  A relatively high percentage of heterosis can be maintained.
3. What about the variability of composites?  Research at the Meat Animal Research Center (MARC), Clay Center, Nebraska, has shown that for economically important traits controlled by many genes (quantitative traits), there is no significant difference in the amount of variation within composites compared to the variation within their parental pure breeds.
4. In summary, composites and/or hybrid bulls have the potential of offering the following to commercial cow/calf producers:  1.  Simplicity.  2.  Breed complementarity so as to match economically important traits with the environment and with market specifications.  3.  A reduction in the impact of negative genetic antagonisms.  4.  Reasonable uniformity from generation to generation.  5.  Little or no difference in variation in quantitative traits between composites and pure breeds.

Crossbreeding arrives, Finally, Maybe, by Wes Ishmael (BEEF Magazine, Mar 1, 2010)

“If you're not crossbreeding, you're leaving 20-25% of production on the table, and that's really hard to make up in premiums,” says Bob Hough, North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) executive vice president.
Specifically, research conducted at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center indicates heterosis yields 25% more lifetime cow productivity and 38% more cow longevity. All told, crossbred females are estimated to be 30% more productive over their lifetimes, due to increased fertility, calf survivability, increased weaning weights and cow longevity.
Dave Daley, a fifth-generation California cattle producer who is also a professor of animal science at California State University-Chico (CSU-Chico).
“The value in crossbreeding is often underestimated because it has a small positive effect on many different traits that are lowly heritable and difficult to measure,” Daley explains. “Frequently, maternal heterosis (the value of the crossbred cow) is about decreasing inputs as much as it is about increasing output. For example, longevity, livability and disease resistance are traits that impact the input side of the equation as much as the output.”

A major reason producers ignore crossbreeding is the simple fact that traditional, effective crossbreeding systems are complicated. They demand intensive, disciplined management, not to mention multiple breeding pastures and herds.
Wade Shafer, American Simmental Association (ASA) director of performance programs.
That's one reason more commercial producers are exploiting heterosis via hybrid and composites.
More than anything, composites and hybrids make utilizing heterosis as convenient as straight-breeding.
 “I think the commercial cattle industry is rediscovering crossbreeding because of economics,” Frank Padilla, AGA director of breed promotion, says. “Crossbreeding is probably the simplest, most predictable way to increase efficiency, particularly in this high-cost environment.”
For that matter, Padilla points out hybrid and crossbred bulls themselves tend to have more longevity because of the direct heterosis they possess.
Increased documentation and genetic evaluation of hybrid and composite cattle through breed registries have also helped producers gain more comfort in using them.
“Breed complementarity and heterosis are the main things. And, now we have genetic predictions on a wide range of traits for both purebreds and hybrids,” Hough says. Though the use of hybrids and composite seedstock is growing, he also believes use of traditional crossbreeding is increasing, as well.
Bottom line, Shafer says, “I think the future of crossbreeding is tied to the use of hybrid and composite seedstock. We're seeing momentum in that direction — use of composites for crossbreeding — and when you consider that our meat-animal competitors use only composites in their breeding systems, the handwriting is on the wall.”