Changing colors

[pdfangus]

I am a lifelong angus breeder.
I have prided myself on the overall disposition of my cattle and it has been one of the things that has brought me return bull customers over the years.

having said that...
I will relate another story.
I have a friend and neighbor for whom I have breed cows for over 25 years...It started out as AI as the select sires guy recommended me...AI bred the small herd for quite a few years....Job changes and other things made it easier to just take a young bull over there for 60 days every spring....So I have done that for at least ten years.
Couple of years ago the now widow lady wanted to keep a pair of heifers as replacements but did not want them to calve as twos....so when I delivered the bull she had the heifers up and I hauled them to my place....they were a little nervous...I attributed it to hauling and strange situation....
but they got steadily worse and were agitating the other heifers I was raising...tended toward fence jumping gate crashing nutty...
now these heifers had been from a long line of my stock....don't have any idea what caused it...sire was calm and sane.
I finally called her and told her that these two were just not safe and recommended she market them...I was afraid she would be hurt. after many tears and much discussion I sold her a heifer and sent these two to market for her. When the hauler came to take them away...they broke out of the pen and ran over him and I had a rodeo to get them caught and loaded....had they been mine I would have shot one of them on the spot....bad nutty.....Hauler said they cleaned out the aisle at the stock yard too.

I can not explain it....

 

[greybeard]

You can get a fighty and fighty one out of any breed--and for no apparent reason, but I won't retain keep one long or retain heifer calf from any that are flighty high heads. Been my experience, that daughters will be the same way and just aren't worth the trouble.
Smokeys do well here--not as good as blacks/baldies maybe, but a close second.

 

[wacocowboy]

I love Char crossed with F1 Tigers or Beefmasters. When you go to work them things get fun cause those calves are wild as the day is long. A neighbor called me one day asked if I would ride over to his oat field he hadn't heard from his helper who was going to put out hay. I got over there and those calves had him sitting on top of a round bale. He was trying to cut the string off and they got after him. Since he was ok it was pretty funny.

 

[kenny thomas]

For all of you that think im crazy, thanks. :wave:
I was raised on a farm that used Charolais bulls in the 1960's. Yes maybe they were not what we needed back then. I started using them in the mid 1980's and had great success. Like many I started chasing the black calves and used Black Limi, Black Simmys, and Angus with some success. I used high dollar bulls with great EPD's but never was as happy as I was with the white bulls. I do not have any white cows and don't plan on it but will use the bulls a lot. I pay attention to the EPD's and how the bulls act before I ever buy them. I have no more calving problems nor disposition problems than with any other breed. The Char X just works for me.

 

[Lazy M]

Right or wrong, sometimes you just won't be happy until you do what makes you happy. Good luck with the new bulls!

 

[pdfangus]

For all of you that think im crazy, thanks. :wave:
I was raised on a farm that used Charolais bulls in the 1960's. Yes maybe they were not what we needed back then. I started using them in the mid 1980's and had great success. Like many I started chasing the black calves and used Black Limi, Black Simmys, and Angus with some success. I used high dollar bulls with great EPD's but never was as happy as I was with the white bulls. I do not have any white cows and don't plan on it but will use the bulls a lot. I pay attention to the EPD's and how the bulls act before I ever buy them. I have no more calving problems nor disposition problems than with any other breed. The Char X just works for me.

Personally I think those smokes make great calves...
I was just sharing some of my personal experiences with individual cattle.
there are as many differences within breeds are there are between breeds.

I have lately taken a liking to what I see about Speckled Park
But in eastern Virginia would be soundly thrashed and trashed at the market.
but I do have some alternatives to sell calves to some all natural guys who are going direct to consumer.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I enjoyed your stories Jim.

I agree that a Char X Angus makes a very nice calf. Good luck Kenny.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

We ran chars in the 80s into the mid 90s. A char cow is still my favorite cow, but I have always been wary of char bulls. We had a little over a dozen char bulls in that time. All were very gentle at first, but we had few that just snapped at about the 4 year mark.

The worst one one was a 6 year old that my grandpa could walk up and scratch. Dad went one eveing to salt them and the dang thing chased him out of the field. Anyone who came in the field he would immediately run back out. We planned on trying to get the whole herd in the barn lot with a bucket of feed, and the try to sort him out and take him to the sale. I was drafted to take the bucket since I was the youngest and fastest. Turns out I did not need the bucket of feed at all, just a good pair of running shoes. As soon as I walked through the gate the dang bull came at me full speed. Hussn Bolt would have looked like a geriatric on a walker compared to me as I shot across the barn lot twords the barn. It must have resembled the Griz scene on Jerimiah Johnson as I ran through the barn with that bull on my heels. I was able to shut the back barn door before he turned me into a greasy spot in the mud. Two of us had to take pitchforks and run his head back in every time he would bust through the inch board siding of the barn. We got the trailer in place and opened the gate and barn door and he ran into the trailer trying to get to us. It took two of us a full day of carpentry to fix back what that crazy bull tore up in about 10 min. He weighed 2345 when we got the check. After this we only kept a bull for two breeding seasons and never had a problem.

 

[mrvictordomino]

We ran chars in the 80s into the mid 90s. A char cow is still my favorite cow, but I have always been wary of char bulls. We had a little over a dozen char bulls in that time. All were very gentle at first, but we had few that just snapped at about the 4 year mark.

The worst one one was a 6 year old that my grandpa could walk up and scratch. Dad went one eveing to salt them and the dang thing chased him out of the field. Anyone who came in the field he would immediately run back out. We planned on trying to get the whole herd in the barn lot with a bucket of feed, and the try to sort him out and take him to the sale. I was drafted to take the bucket since I was the youngest and fastest. Turns out I did not need the bucket of feed at all, just a good pair of running shoes. As soon as I walked through the gate the dang bull came at me full speed. Hussn Bolt would have looked like a geriatric on a walker compared to me as I shot across the barn lot twords the barn. It must have resembled the Griz scene on Jerimiah Johnson as I ran through the barn with that bull on my heels. I was able to shut the back barn door before he turned me into a greasy spot in the mud. Two of us had to take pitchforks and run his head back in every time he would bust through the inch board siding of the barn. We got the trailer in place and opened the gate and barn door and he ran into the trailer trying to get to us. It took two of us a full day of carpentry to fix back what that crazy bull tore up in about 10 min. He weighed 2345 when we got the check. After this we only kept a bull for two breeding seasons and never had a problem.

Life is too short to deal with that.....Don't care what they bring.

 

[Ky hills]

For all of you that think im crazy, thanks. :wave:
I was raised on a farm that used Charolais bulls in the 1960's. Yes maybe they were not what we needed back then. I started using them in the mid 1980's and had great success. Like many I started chasing the black calves and used Black Limi, Black Simmys, and Angus with some success. I used high dollar bulls with great EPD's but never was as happy as I was with the white bulls. I do not have any white cows and don't plan on it but will use the bulls a lot. I pay attention to the EPD's and how the bulls act before I ever buy them. I have no more calving problems nor disposition problems than with any other breed. The Char X just works for me.

Just as PDFAngus said, I was just sharing some personal experiences that I had as well. I will always have a special fondness for Charolais, at one time I had a herd of around 40 registered females. I also met a lot of good folks and made some good friends, during that time period. I wish you the best with your new bulls. I often think about trying different breeds, I would love to breed a little ear into some of my cows. I have a few crosses and really like them.

 

[cow pollinater]

I had a few char cows when I sold out that I'm still kicking myself for not keeping. If I still had access to their sires in bulk I'd probably use it here in a big way. Rio Bravo, in particular is a bull that I'd sure like to have more semen on.

 

[jedstivers]

I had a few char cows when I sold out that I'm still kicking myself for not keeping. If I still had access to their sires in bulk I'd probably use it here in a big way. Rio Bravo, in particular is a bull that I'd sure like to have more semen on.

I don't know the lines but I have a friend not to far from you new place that is having a bull sell soon, in the pics the Bulls look real nice. He and another guy have a yearly sale at the I-40 stockyards in Ozark.

 

[Ky hills]

I had a few char cows when I sold out that I'm still kicking myself for not keeping. If I still had access to their sires in bulk I'd probably use it here in a big way. Rio Bravo, in particular is a bull that I'd sure like to have more semen on.

I was out of Charolais before the Rio Bravo bull, but if memory serves me he was LT Rio Bravo, if so I'm sure he is a very good bull. When it came to Charolais AI sires I used LT ranch bulls mostly, and my best calves were consistently from some of those bulls. I really liked their Intimidator bull.

 

[jedstivers]

Back in the late 80's, early 90's I had Brahman cross mamas, really good cows.
I put Char Bulls on them and their calves really were nice and those kind at the time would top the sale.
Red's or yellows' and would mash the scale down. Never had mean Bulls and never pulled calves, just tint put them on first calf heifers.