Reproductive Crossing

a method of breeding farm animals that is used to create a new, better breed from two or more breeds. Reproductive breeding is called simple or complex, depending on whether two breeds or three or more breeds are involved. Breeding of pedigreed stock consists roughly of three stages. The first stage consists of crossing animals of two or more breeds to obtain hybrids of the de-sired type. This is done with a limited number of animals, using the best representatives of the original breeds. The second stage involves autosexing hybrids of the desired type and fixing their heredity by homogeneous breeding and in some cases by mating related individuals (inbreeding). The third stage consists of reproducing the group of animals obtained to a number sufficient to permit selection and breeding without the use of close or even moderate inbreeding. Animals that do not come up to the standard of the new breed are rejected. A classic example of complex reproductive breeding is the creation of the Orlov trotter.

Reproductive crossing is widely used in animal husbandry. Dozens of new and valuable breeds of farm animals have been created in the USSR by this method (cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys).