Char Influence

[Randi]

About 4 years ago, I finally talked my husband into adding some Char bulls to the bull pen. The cow herd consists of red and black Angus, Shorthorn and Hereford mixed cows. We've seen an increase in weaning weights, and a premium of $50 -$100/ calf on the tans and silvers over the reds and blacks. We still are running Red Angus an Shorthorn bulls on our best cows for replacements (for 1 cycle, then Char) and now Char on all the rest.

Here's some of this year's steer calves, the day before we weaned and sold. They averaged 595 lbs, March and April calves sold in Early Oct.

I think this was our biggest calf, almost 800 lbs

And our daughter's old 4H cow with her good Shorthorn sired steer.

 

[greybeard]

Char on lots of breeds adds # and $$. I used a char X sim bull on beefmasters till he died last winter and I really liked the calves. Lots of people don't like them because of the increased chance of rat tail calves but I never had one.

 

[Randi]

From what I've read about it, is that the rat tail come from Simmental and Gelbveih genetics. So far, we haven't had one.

 

[Bigfoot]

That's some great ww on calves that age.

 

[callmefence]

I really like a char bull for commercial cows. The calves grow good on milk and pasture. And they sell good. Often beating blacks. The chars also tend to hold up good in hot weather and rough pastures.

 

[Dave]

My neighbor runs about 900 cows. His cows are mostly black but there is every color of the rainbow. I would guess that 75% of his bulls are Char. I helped him sort over 500 calves when they went to town. He didn't keep any of the Char cross heifers for replacements but they were certainly bigger than the black, red, and baldies which he did keep.

 

[callmefence]

My neighbor runs about 900 cows. His cows are mostly black but there is every color of the rainbow. I would guess that 75% of his bulls are Char. I helped him sort over 500 calves when they went to town. He didn't keep any of the Char cross heifers for replacements but they were certainly bigger than the black, red, and baldies which he did keep.

I pretty much agree with that. The char bull is for putting pounds on the scales. Not so much for replacement s.
The one exception is the charbray. Char x Brahman is a very little talked about cross. These make very good Mama cows and outstanding calves with a Angus or Hereford bull.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Char on lots of breeds adds # and $$. I used a char X sim bull on beefmasters till he died last winter and I really liked the calves. Lots of people don't like them because of the increased chance of rat tail calves but I never had one.

said it before,Charolais/Beefmaster makes a great mammy..

 

[gaurus]

Hey, great looking calves, you can't go wrong with Char influence calves, they bring more # and more $

The char bull is for putting pounds on the scales. Not so much for replacement s.
The one exception is the charbray. Char x Brahman is a very little talked about cross. These make very good Mama cows and outstanding calves with a Angus or Hereford bull.

Charbray cows are indeed very good cows, but not as efficient as British/Brahman cross F1 cows(like Tiger Stripe cows) and when you take the whole operation(Charbray cows with Angus or Hereford bull) is even less efficient than running F1 Braford/Brangus cows with Charolais bull(smaller more efficient cows crossed with a terminal bull: Charolais)

 

[callmefence]

Hey, great looking calves, you can't go wrong with Char influence calves, they bring more # and more $

The char bull is for putting pounds on the scales. Not so much for replacement s.
The one exception is the charbray. Char x Brahman is a very little talked about cross. These make very good Mama cows and outstanding calves with a Angus or Hereford bull.

Charbray cows are indeed very good cows, but not as efficient as British/Brahman cross F1 cows(like Tiger Stripe cows) and when you take the whole operation(Charbray cows with Angus or Hereford bull) is even less efficient than running F1 Braford/Brangus cows with Charolais bull(smaller more efficient cows crossed with a terminal bull: Charolais)

I agree 100 percent.

My end goal for my permanent herd would ideally be f1 tigers and Victorias
Well get there someday.

 

[Silver]

They look good Randi. May I ask what they would have typically weaned at prior to the Char bulls?

 

[True Grit Farms]

Hey, great looking calves, you can't go wrong with Char influence calves, they bring more # and more $

The char bull is for putting pounds on the scales. Not so much for replacement s.
The one exception is the charbray. Char x Brahman is a very little talked about cross. These make very good Mama cows and outstanding calves with a Angus or Hereford bull.

Charbray cows are indeed very good cows, but not as efficient as British/Brahman cross F1 cows(like Tiger Stripe cows) and when you take the whole operation(Charbray cows with Angus or Hereford bull) is even less efficient than running F1 Braford/Brangus cows with Charolais bull(smaller more efficient cows crossed with a terminal bull: Charolais)

I agree 100 percent.

My end goal for my permanent herd would ideally be f1 tigers and Victorias
Well get there someday.

What cross is a Victorias cow? I think my best calf came from a smokie Char, and I know my worst calf came from a smokie Char. They were both sale barn cows so I don't know how they were bred.

 

[callmefence]

Hey, great looking calves, you can't go wrong with Char influence calves, they bring more # and more $



Charbray cows are indeed very good cows, but not as efficient as British/Brahman cross F1 cows(like Tiger Stripe cows) and when you take the whole operation(Charbray cows with Angus or Hereford bull) is even less efficient than running F1 Braford/Brangus cows with Charolais bull(smaller more efficient cows crossed with a terminal bull: Charolais)

I agree 100 percent.

My end goal for my permanent herd would ideally be f1 tigers and Victorias
Well get there someday.

What cross is a Victorias cow? I think my best calf came from a smokie Char, and I know my worst calf came from a smokie Char. They were both sale barn cows so I don't know how they were bred.

Victoria is a f1 tiger(braford) x Hereford.
So 3/4 herford 1/4 Brahman. I've got some calves hitting the ground right now. I'll get some pics if I can get home before freaking dark.

 

[gaurus]

Victoria is a f1 tiger(braford) x Hereford.
So 3/4 herford 1/4 Brahman. I've got some calves hitting the ground right now. I'll get some pics if I can get home before freaking dark.

Thanks, I would love to see them.

 

[Randi]

They look good Randi. May I ask what they would have typically weaned at prior to the Char bulls?

I'll have to look it up, but I would think in that 575 range at the same age. Last year, the same bunch of calves at the same sale time were around 625.

 

[greybeard]

I agree 100 percent.

My end goal for my permanent herd would ideally be f1 tigers and Victorias
Well get there someday.

What cross is a Victorias cow? I think my best calf came from a smokie Char, and I know my worst calf came from a smokie Char. They were both sale barn cows so I don't know how they were bred.

Victoria is a f1 tiger(braford) x Hereford.
So 3/4 herford 1/4 Brahman. I've got some calves hitting the ground right now. I'll get some pics if I can get home before freaking dark.

Get a little shorthorn in with that.........

 

[Muddy]

From what I've read about it, is that the rat tail come from Simmental and Gelbveih genetics. So far, we haven't had one.

Never seen a rattail out of gelbvieh cattle. Most rattails I seen were from Char x crosses. The Simmental & Fleckvieh breeders pretty much breed the dilutor out of the cattle nowadays.

 

[gcreekrch]

Cattle look great Randi. We are in Charolais bull buying mode now too.

The rats we have ended up with occasionally have been from Simmental cows and black angus bulls. The right crossbred cow mated to some Char bulls will produce a tight haired calf but not a true rat.

An old friend loved those grey cows, they were once very cheap and always had a red calf when crossed with Limo bulls.

 

[Chocolate Cow2]

Early this year I bought a pot load of bred older Angus cows. I calved them out and mid-summer sent them to town. I kept the calves. They were mostly chars. The bulls that sired these calves came from a local breeder who lives for the show ring. These char calves will sure cure any itch I might have towards using a char bull. They're never going to weigh anything and I've put an enormous amount of feed in them. Ran them on some brome grass in the fall, Implanted them, wormed them. And while they were on the brome, somebody stole some of them. They're going to town soon and I'm taking my lumps.
Randi-your calves look the way I wished mine did. Nice pictures, easy to look at.

 

[Dave]

I went to the sale and watched the neighbors calves sell. They were a penny or two off the top of the market that day but the extra pounds more than made up for that when it came to dollars in his pocket.