Later on that year, this client took a notion to try to breed bucking bulls. PBR was coming on strong in the mid-90's, and he decided he wanted to create his own 3-way cross of Brahman, Longhorn, and Chianina cattle to get bucking bulls out of. He bought about 20 Longhorn cows, and a bull, as well as about 20 Brahma cows and a bull. He bred half of the Longhorn cows to his Brahman, the other half to his Chianina. Same with the Brahma cows… half to the Longhorn and half to the Chianina. Starting that year, he no longer bred his 6 Chianina cows to the Holstein (but still bred his Holstein cows to the Chianin a bull) , but bred 3 to the LH and 3 to the Brahman. That year and the next, he kept is Holstein x Chiania heifers, and used them in the breeding program in the same capacity as the reg. Chianina. After a couple of years, he'd take the 2-way crosses…LH x Br, LH x Chi, and Chi x Br, breed them to a purebred of the 3rd breed ( LH x Br to a Chianina, for instance) and get a 3-way cross that was ½ x1/4 x1/4. These 3 -way crosses were bred back to each other( He had kept all his bull calves intact, and any of the bulls that ended up bucking...he'd use them for breeding), and by 2000 or so had a pretty uniform type of cattle, either 3/8 x 3/8 x ¼, or 5/16 x 5/16 x 3/16ths . About 2002 or so, he got to AI-ing his cattle to champion NFR and PBR bulls, as well as his own that bucked well.
About 1998 or so, when he had about 3 years worth of the 2-way crosses, he started selling off his Longhorns and Brahmans, and a couple of years later, he started selling off most of his 2-way crosses. I bought some of the LH X Br cows, and ended up with about 10-12. The rest, I sold every year to a partner in Fla who bred Brahman-cross cattle. He used Brangus, Braford, Santa Gertrudis, Charbray, and Beefmaster bulls. These cows did phenomenally for him. No calving problems, heat, humidity and insects didn't bother them, and they were excellent momma cows, with ample milk. The ones I kept, I bred them to an angus bull. The calves were polled, black, and looked about like a Brangus. The steers sold for top dollar, as well as any angus or black baldy does around here. The heifers sold very well, as either open replacements, or as a pair with calf at its side. The heifers I kept, I bred back to Angus bulls. When it came time to sell those ugly Br x LH cows, however, they wouldn't bring hardly anything.
The Chi- LH cows, I sold to the partner in Florida. They did as well as the LH-x Br cows in his operation, only raised a LOT bigger claves. I ended up keeping 3 of these, and I bred them to a Brangus each year. The calves were all black, and polled, and looked like Chi-Angus with a touch of ear. Again, the steers brought top dollar, as did the heifers, but the cows...not so much. These cows were near as big as the Chianina parent, but with more color on them than a pure Chianina…kinda depended on the coloration of the LH parent. Most had some horn, but not as much as you might think.
The Chi x Br cows, were probably my favorite of the 2-way crosses. I bought all of them he would sell each year, having as many as 20 at any one time. These cows were as big as a purebred Chianina…colored the same… and no where near as much ear or leather as you might think, being half Brahma. I chose to breed them with some of my neighbor's registered polled Charolais bulls. This area is not very big on Charolais, like a lot of places.. " Black is Best", etc. but Holy Hand Grenades, Batman!! These cows would stand in the middle of a pasture, at high noon, July and August, and eat like they were starving to death! They did not get sick. They had ZERO calving problems. They were the best mommas, and produced a LOT of milk. Nursing those big ole Charolais calves never pulled a pound off of these cows. The calves came out white, polled, with just a hint of ear. I swear, if you wanted to sit out in the pasture and watch them all day, you could virtually see them growing. I am sure the steers got docked per pound, for being white, but heck, you could wean them at 6 mos, and they'd be 100-200 lbs bigger than the other commercial steers coming through the sale were at 8-9 months. The heifers, though, sold VERY well as replacement heifers... both open or bred… or as bred 1st and 2nd-calf cows, or pairs, or 3 way deals. When those heifers were mature cows, they'd be as big as a Chianina, and looked like basically, giant Charolais. The ones I kept I always bred back to Charolais, and again...not one calving problem, ever. When it came time to sell those Chi x Br cows, ( when they didn't breed back on time, or at all) they'd bring about the same as an older culled Charolais would. But man those heifers sold like they were made of gold! I would always take a copy of the Brahma and Chianina grandparents' papers, and a copy of the Charolais bull's papers to give to the buyers. Of course, none of these papers meant a thing… no one at the sales knew much, if anything, about the Chianina or Brahma bloodlines…. and maybe 1 or 2 might recognize a Charolais name. But the fact that these records were kept, made the commercial cow-calf farmers pay top-dollar for them. If I took any bred, or with a heifer calf by their side, I'd also include that bull's papers as well.
One year, I bred 2 of the Chi x Br cows to an Angus and 2 to a Brangus (got 4 smoky steers out of them, and they sold as well as any other non- black did), 2 to a Gert bull ( got a bull and heifer, they looked just like the Gert, only a lot taller, and a lighter red. Left the bull intact til I weaned and sold him, because that's what the buyer that got him and the heifer wanted), and bred 2 to a Simmental and 2 to a Hereford. All 4 of them were heifers. Back then, Simmentals were still red and white, and those 2 heifers looked like the popular (at the time) Simm x Charolais. The 2 Hereford cross heifers looked like any other Hereford x Charolais, only bigger. Man that bought them had Angus bulls and raised some fine black baldy heifers out of them and the Simm cross heifers.
If I were still in the cow business today,, even with me being a huge Angus/Brangus/ Chi-angus fan, and not all that big a Charolais fan, I'd take a pasture full of those Chi x Br cows any day. And, I'd still breed them to Charolais bulls. If not Charolais, then Hereford bulls...and I am not all that big a Hereford fan either.
