Practical Composites

摘要

Spade Ranches employs a simple crossbreeding scheme that optimizes heterosis in herds of any size. "These half-blood bulls will pull you quicker toward the center of what you're trying to achieve than any other system," says John Welch, president andCEO of Spade Ranches headquartered at Lubbock, TX. Welch is referring to an innovative crossbreeding system Spade Ranches began a couple of years ago aimed at stabilizing the genetics in their crossbred cowherd while optimizing heterosis and moderating frame size and milk. No stranger to using multiple breeds to attain specific goals, Welch explains the ranch - originally purchased in 1889 and still owned by heirs of the same family - began using Hereford and Shorthorn to breed up Longhorn cattle. Overtime, it became a straight-bred Hereford program until the late 1960s, when Dub Waldrip, the former long-time Spade Ranches president and CEO, came on board.