Charolais Believer

[Mosho]

We have been using an Angus bull on our Angus/Brangus cross cows with decent results but the calves have been a little light weight at weaning. We have our first calf on the ground out of a Charolais bull and he is a beauty. If he weans as well as he has started out, I will be a Charolais believer.

 

[MikeC]

Mosho - I too like the Charolais except for the heavy BW. My neighbor has a Charolais bull but has lost a few calves due to the heavies.

My neighbor has more problems with the Brangus Bull's calves' BW's than he does the Char calves.

He also used to run Angus bulls but they turned out as dinks and din't press down hard enough on the scales at weaning.

Imagine that.

Yes the calves registered with the Char Assoc. are heavier on average than some other breeds because they are out out of registered cows that might be a little larger. But when bred to a good mid-sized commercial cow they fall in there about average.

In fact, one of my local bull customers has changed completely over to Chars from Brangus bulls on his 1200 mama cows because of less calving problems and the advantage of pounds in the feedlot and at weaning.

Been there done all of that. For about 40 years now. :roll:

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

You are also opitmizing your heterosis by croosing with a charolais on brangus rather than a angus on brangus.

I am sure you would get similar results with most continental breeds or a hereford or shorthorn bull.

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

Heterosis can not be ignored. A friend bought one of my former herd bulls(Hereford) and put him on a straight Charolais cowherd. There were several reasons he switched to the herf, aside from the fact that he likes them, the primary reason was a hope of less calving trouble. He'd been pulling most first calvers, losing some. The first two calves of the season were sired by the old Charolais bull, and the rest were out of the herf. Not only were his calving difficulties nearly eliminated, but by weaning time, the baldies had caught the straight Char calves in size even though they were at least a month younger.

This is not to knock Chars, just to make a point about heterosis.

 

[Dusty]

GreeNwillow.... Pat yourself on the back, using a bull as a herd sire that then turns into a commercial bull, just how good was that bull ?

I will just throw out some stats.. Last year 320+ embryos calved in 2=10 year old commercial cows. All these cattle in cooperator herds, So I couldn't control feed, cattle, or Protein amounts...

230 Charolais Embryos and 113 Angus Embryos,
153 Charolais Pregancies, No Dead Calves, only 1 issue with a calf turned arround and tried to come out backwards.. Ended up saving the calf and cow.. (lost 4 calves to sickness @ 45 days all in one herd)
77 Angus Pregancies, lost 4 calves @ birth, either the head or front shoulders caught up..(3 different herds) and we had 2 calves that reported were polled by our operators...

Those are Fall 2007 Results... as of 01/15/08 .... So if the Charolais are such hard calvers and Angus the Premier "easy Calvers" of the industry how could the Angus nearly double the % of calving problems then the Charolais, Same herds, both Charolais and Angus placed in most herds...

 

[remsteel6]

Here's to hoping you'll are right.
I bred a few cows to a charolais bull this year and I can't wait to see the calves

 

[gerardplauche]

The more I look at the Cahr, the more I like them. I plan on selling off a few Angus heifers next week to be replaced with Char.