Crossbreeding
Mating animals of different breeds to combine their strengths in the offspring.
Also: cross-breeding, crossing
Crossbreeding mates a bull of one breed with a cow of another. It is used to bring traits together, such as the heat and tick tolerance of zebu with the milk yield of taurine dairy breeds, and to gain hybrid vigour, the extra growth, fertility and health often seen in first crosses. In India, crossing local cows with Holstein Friesian and Jersey bulls since the 1960s and 1970s has raised milk output, and crossbred cows now make up a large share of the national dairy herd; at the same time there are programmes to conserve purebred native breeds. Planned systems, such as rotating bulls of two or three breeds, are common in beef herds.