1st calf 2024 CharolaisX

[Ky hills]

Found this little one this morning when feeding hay.
Our cows aren't officially supposed to start calving until March. Neighbors bull must have come visiting and went back home before we saw him. Later in the year we found him twice.
Bull is about the same color of this calf.
This cow is one of my smallest framed cows. It's been probably over 25 years since I've had any CharolaisX calves born. Used to have registered Charolais, and began phasing them out. A few years after that I had a neighbors Charolais bull breed one of my black cows and that was the last Charolais calf born here as the neighbor soon switched to Angus again.
Seeing this little long legged alert looking CharolaisX has me nostalgic, May have to consider a Charolais bull again.

 

[uplandnut]

I like him. What was your reason for getting out of the charolais breed?

 

[Ky hills]

I like him. What was your reason for getting out of the charolais breed?

Back then, the market for them crashed as everybody wanted moderate framed and black hided cattle.

 

[Ky hills]

I loved the Charolais breed, I've never had any breed since that could match the consistent growth. The base Charolais cowherd I had was heavy milking, and docile. Every once in a while there'd be a cow that would be extremely aggressive for a couple weeks when they first calved but that's not a bad thing.
The issues I did have were the udders sometimes where they were so heavy milking didn't hold up real into old age.
Some show bred Bloodlines didn't milk at all, and tended to throw a few big slow to get going calves.
Majority of our calves hit the ground pretty lively

 

[Ky hills]

Looks to me like that CharX bull got another one. Calf looks black, but looks light around the eyes, doesn't look consistent with the calves our BWF has thrown.

 

[gman4691]

Looks to me like that CharX bull got another one. Calf looks black, but looks light around the eyes, doesn't look consistent with the calves our BWF has thrown.

Looks to me like that CharX bull got another one. Calf looks black, but looks light around the eyes, doesn't look consistent with the calves our BWF has thrown.View attachment 40772

brings Mr. Peabody to mind with those spectacles

 

[tsellars]

That mot face cow is a dandy.

 

[kenny thomas]

Looks to me like that CharX bull got another one. Calf looks black, but looks light around the eyes, doesn't look consistent with the calves our BWF has thrown.View attachment 40772

Is it rat tail. That goes along with the color and curly hair.

 

[Ky hills]

Is it rat tail. That goes along with the color and curly hair.

I don't know, reckon it is?
I've noticed several of our Hereford calves have had curly hair and that cow's mother is Hereford.
The bull is probably an Angus Charolais cross

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The original Chars were poor milkers. Now there are some really nice cowherds.

 

[kenny thomas]

I don't know, reckon it is?
I've noticed several of our Hereford calves have had curly hair and that cow's mother is Hereford.
The bull is probably an Angus Charolais cross View attachment 40791View attachment 40794

I would consider this bull a rat tail.

 

[Ky hills]

The original Chars were poor milkers. Now there are some really nice cowherds.

When I was involved with them it was in the late 80's-mid 90's. The majority of my base cowherd came from local breeders that had been involved with the breed for a while at that point. The majority of those cows weighed around 1400-1600 and milked very well. Udder quality on the other hand wasn't always great.
When I branched out and brought in some females or retained daughters from bulls from the popular show lines of the time, I got a hold of some that didn't milk hardly at all.

 

[moses388]

Looks to me like that CharX bull got another one.

Agree.

 

[Ky hills]

Got a close up look at the first mouse colored calf this morning. Her tail looked normal and full of hair to me, as did her hair coat
Does rat tail show from birth or over time?
I see what people are saying, I agree the bull looks like the hair is thin on the sides of his tail.
I've noticed the over the years with Angus that sometimes they have real short tails and little to no switch, but have never seen any abnormal hair on them nor does it seem to affect them. Makes me wonder if there is a contribution of sorts to the rat tail from both breeds when paired together.

 

[GoWyo]

Can usually tell a rat tail calf from birth. Body hair will be shorter than normal and tail will be the same. Had a rat tail smoke colored clubby bred calf one time. He had the long guard hairs but the undercoat was kind of short like a rat tail calf, but a lesser degree of rat tail. Other than lack of a tail switch he turned out pretty good.

 

[Chuckie]

Such beautiful designer colored calves. I love that color.

 

[Chuckie]

Seeing that cow that still is holding the placenta and the calf is already nursing, such a strong sight to see. All is well........

 

[Ky hills]

Seeing that cow that still is holding the placenta and the calf is already nursing, such a strong sight to see. All is well........

Yep, that's how I like to find em

 

[redcowsrule33]

Can usually tell a rat tail calf from birth. Body hair will be shorter than normal and tail will be the same. Had a rat tail smoke colored clubby bred calf one time. He had the long guard hairs but the undercoat was kind of short like a rat tail calf, but a lesser degree of rat tail. Other than lack of a tail switch he turned out pretty good.

It's even easier to tell if they have any white on them. The white hair will be a normal length an do the grey hair shorter.