At its inception the objective for the Belmont Red breed was to blend an average of the genes from the Africander and from the British. Adaptive traits such as easy calving, parasite resistance, disease resistance, heat tolerance and hardiness, as well as meat quality traits and fertility were inherited from the Africander. Productive traits, such as fertility and growth, as well as carcase and meat quality were also inherited from the British. Genetically the Africander component distinguishes the Belmont from other Composite breeds based on the Brahman such as Santa Gertrudis, Droughtmaster, Brangus, Charbray and Braford.

The range and combinations of established breeds included in the Belmont Red provided it with all the desirable traits of the British, European and other Tropical breeds. The herd book remains open and grading up to pure Belmont can simply be accomplished in three back crosses. The Belmont can therefore be established by simply grading up from any base cow herd through three generations of mating to registered Belmont bulls, the fourth crop being registerable as pure Belmonts. This allows the Belmont Breeders to tap into a broad genetic pool and retain desirable gene combinations from the parent breeds. With the correct selection programs, the productive desirable gene combinations can be accumulated and fixed.