We liked the resulting cross between Gelbvieh and Angus (Red or Black) so well, that we decided to focus our breeding program primarily on producing Balancers. We took some of our elite Gelbvieh cows and flushed them to highly proven Angus bulls to produce Balancers.
     
     We are slowly converting our base herd to Balancer and plan on maintaining a few elite Gelbvieh and Angus cows for embryo production.
Balancers are registered Gelbvieh X Angus hybrid seedstock, complete with registered parents that have been evaluated for genetic performance. Each registered Balancer comes with complete Expected Progeny Differences calculated through the American Gelbvieh Association. Balancers offer commercial producers a fast, management-friendly path to the British X Continental industry target.

Bottom line, crossbreeding is still the only free lunch available in the beef business. Nothing more dramatically impacts your bottom line than effectively managing hybrid vigor in your cow herd. Crossbred cows return, on average, over $100 more per year than straightbreds. Crossbred cows live 38% longer and are 8% more efficient resulting in a 25% advantage in lifetime productivity.

Balancers provide an easy-to-manage breeding system that captures hybrid vigor and blends the unique breed complementarity of Gelbvieh and Angus in a single animal that would otherwise take years to perfect. Plus, the use of Balancers allows producers to fix breed composition to near exact percentages and effectively manage hybrid vigor in both the cow herd and the resulting calf crop.

Provided new Balancer genetics are incorporated, hybrid vigor is maintained from year to year at near optimum levels. That means that replacement females are a byproduct of the same breeding system that produces cattle demanded by both feeders and packers. (adapted from American Gelbvieh Association)