I remember reading an interesting paper entitled “Effect of breed on the profitability of commercial beef production” written by Holmes and Sackett some years ago but I mislaid it. Going through some files I found it again and reproduce the findings here.
The study summarises the findings on 215 herds for the period 1997 to 1999. The herds were distributed across southern temperate Australia with a range in rainfall of 300 – 800 mm per year. The results are tabulated on a per DSE basis as there was too much variation between environments to compare per hectare.
The most profitable breed was Hereford x Angus because of the the hybrid vigour effect but the authors point out that cross breeding adds complexity to breeding programs if this advantage is to be maintained.
Murray Greys produced significantly more income per DSE than Angus.
While the authors found a significant difference between breeds they found that the level of management had a more significant effect than choice of breed.
The full paper can be found by clicking here Breed profitability.
