AS Command Agriculture begins to yield positive results, and new indigenous livestock farmers are beginning to breed imported cattle breeds, it is important we understand the character of a breed and requisites for farming these imported ‘exotic’ breeds in Zimbabwe.

Given that the Southern African cattle calving season usually commences during the rain period, a calving season should coincide with optimal veld and pasture conditions.  

The importance of managing one’s veld wisely, ensuring that it remains a major grazing resource for your livestock cannot be overstressed.

It must be remembered that 70 percent of an animal’s visual disposition and beef quality is due mainly to environmental influences and surroundings such as good pastures, and only 30 percent of its disposition is due to its genetic composition.

In today’s beef industry that demands efficiency, the Beefmaster cattle breed answers the challenge by being exceptional ‘convertors of feed’.   

The breeding programme leading to their establishment was started by Ed C. Lasater in 1908, who also developed a registered Hereford herd in which the cattle had red circles around each eye. In both his Brahman and Hereford breeding, he stressed the production of milk. 

Following his death in 1930, the breeding operations came under the direction of his son, Tom Lasater, when the beef industry of the 1930s-1950s in America was very different than it is today.  

There were no modern selection tools such as EPDs (Expected Progeny Differences), ultrasound for live animal carcass evaluations or genomics (DNA) to help identify superior animals or the other technologically advanced, computerised  breeding aids. 

He began to combine the breeding of the Brahman and Hereford cattle and also used some registered Shorthorn bulls.  After making crosses of Brahman-Hereford and Brahman-Shorthorn, he felt a superior animal had been produced and called the cattle ‘Beefmaster’.   Lasater required Beefmaster cows to calve annually. 

He required heifers to breed at 14 months and to calve as two-year-olds in a 90-day season at a time when many ranches left the bulls out all year round.  Most importantly, he culled every cow that, for any reason, did not wean a merchantable calf every year.

In 1937, Tom Lasater closed his herd and no outside genetics have been introduced into the foundation herd since that time.  

Intense selection for economically important traits over the years has resulted in a homozygous beef breed that has locked in the explosive growth potential of a hybrid.

This revolutionary new way of looking at, and selecting cattle, gave rise to a breed that is unique in many ways. 

The breed is recognised as a ‘Dual Purpose’ breed, meaning Beefmaster combine strong maternal traits with excellent growth and carcass abilities. 

The cattle, like the MaShona Breed of Zimbabwe, are heat, drought and insect resistant. 

They are moderate in size and, while there is no set colour pattern in the breed, they are generally light red to dark red and some will have white mottle on their faces.

The females are excellent mothers, raising a heavy calf each year, and the bulls are aggressive breeders.  

Beefmasters are intelligent, gentle cattle that are truly a pleasure to work with. 

While all these traits make Beefmaster cattle pleasurable and profitable to work with, perhaps the thing about them that has most driven their enormous popularity throughout the world is their ability to do well in a variety of difficult environments with a minimum of attention. 

The Foundation Beefmaster herd, originally developed in Falfurrias, Texas, has been located in Matheson, Colorado, since the early 1950s.  

Making genetic progress was difficult for Tom Lasater, but over time it helped develop the Beefmaster breed. 

Through following a well-thought-out breeding programme that utilised a cross of Hereford, Shorthorn and bos indicus genetics, then selecting the most adaptable, performance-oriented animals and breeding only the best, the Beefmaster breed was then born in the harsh brush country of south Texas.

The genetic combination of roughly 25 percent Hereford, 25 percent Shorthorn and 50 percent bos indicus proved to be very prolific. 

The resulting composites were selected using the ‘Six Essentials’ — that is: fertility, disposition, weight, conformation, hardiness and milk production, which, over time, proved to be very predictable. 

The Six Essentials are the core traits that the entire Beefmaster breed, selected for and developed upon, and makes the Beefmaster breed such a powerful crossbreeding means in the American beef industry today. 

In addition, pinkeye is extremely rare for Beefmaster cattle. 

No breed offers greater hardiness, fertility and milk under a wider range of conditions.

As a breed, Beefmaster was recognised by the US Department of Agriculture as a pure breed in 1954. The unique genetic makeup of Beefmaster yields 63 percent Retained Heterosis, a vital statistic for the profitability of commercial cattlemen. The Beefmaster is now the fourth largest beef breed in the US.

In multiple all-breed bull development facilities that measure feed efficiency and residual feed intake, Beefmaster cattle ranked as ‘the most efficient convertors of feed’ when compared to other breeds in the same facilities in the US, where crossbreeding using the Beefmaster breed is a proven method to increase maternal efficiency and calf performance.

While maternal heterosis is the main calling card for the Beefmaster breed, it should be noted that carcass merit is not overlooked in this versatile breed.

Keeping a crossbreeding programme simple is the key to success. Stressing the genetic differences between breeds used in crossbreeding is important. The more unrelated the breeds being used are, the more of an impact heterosis will have.

To maximise heterosis potential and to keep a crossbreeding programme simple, many ranchers use a terminal crossbreeding programme.  An example is Angus x Beefmaster to produce a crossbred female that is designed to maximise maternal heterosis. 

Angus x Beefmaster crossbred females would then be mated to Continental bulls such as Charolais to maximise performance potential in their calves. 

This mating system leverages the genetic diversity across British, Continental and American breeds, resulting in higher performance at every level and exploits breed complementarity needed to maximise production and profit.

Currently, across the world, as demand for protein in higher quality diets has increased the demand for beef, well-planned crossbreeding with Beefmaster, recognised as a breed in 1954, by the USDA, is the fastest way to create efficiency and profit in the cattle business. 

If you are a grass-based cattle rancher who likes thrifty cattle that raise profitable calves in any climate with a minimum of attention, Beefmaster is the breed for you!  

Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, lecturer and a specialist Post-Colonial Scholar, Zimbabwean Socio-Economic analyst and researcher. E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com