Relevance. Beef production in the Russian Federation is mainly based on the use of overhauled young animals and culled adult dairy and mixed breeds. Only 10 % of beef is obtained from specialized beef cattle and their crosses. Currently, about 17.0 kg of beef is received per person in the country or 42.5 % of the need.

The development of specialized beef cattle breeding, along with the organization of industrial crossing of some cows and overhauled heifers of dairy cattle, as well as the introduction of intensive fattening of livestock, will create favourable conditions for increasing the production of high-quality beef and reducing our country’s food dependence on imports of meat and meat products [2].

In connection with the growing demand for lean beef in many countries of the world, dairy and meat-anddairy cattle with good meat qualities are bred. In Russia, among the bred combined breeds of livestock, the Simmental breed has high fattening and slaughter qualities, good indicators of milk productivity. Breeding aimed at the harmonious combination and improvement of these traits has its characteristics and difficulties associated with the presence of a negative or weakly positive correlation between traits that determine milk and meat qualities.

The experience of the development of domestic and foreign cattle breeding shows that the most rapid and effective improvement of the breeding and productive qualities of animals in purebred breeding can be achieved by a wide use of improver bulls, tested for the quality of offspring, both in terms of milk production and meat qualities [4].

Breeding requires a continuous change of generations, while each subsequent generation of animals must surpass the previous one in productive qualities. Genetic progress in the productivity of cows in cattle breeding is provided mainly through the selection and widespread use of bulls-improvers [6].

Evaluation of the productive and hereditary qualities of servicing bulls is of no small importance in breeding work with cattle. It is the main link in the system of breeding work with herds and breeds. In large-scale breeding, it is of key importance, especially in the work on the creation of new types of dairy cattle, factory lines and their improvement [9, 10].