Charolais Breeders?

[heather3_27]

Hey Guys. I just got on this board...and was wondering how many Charolais breeders are around? Would love to find about you and where you are and what bulls you are using. I also work for a semen distributor, so I always like to hear what working best in other herds. Best of luck this breeding seasing!

Thanks, Heather

 

[UG]

I'm not a Charolais breeder but am a casual observer of the breed. I have been considering breeding a few females via AI to a Charolais bull. Any suggestions on what bulls I should consider? My primary criteria are:

Birth Weight: breed average or lower
Yearling Weight: breed average or higher
Good disposition
Moderate Frame: no bigger than 6.5 frame
Homozygous Polled
Good thickness and depth of body

 

[heather3_27]

Hey there. Well, I am encouraged that you are wanting to breed to a Charolais bull. I guess my question is what are you gonna be breeding him to?

As far as birthweight, there is a bull called Baldridge Fasttrack, he has a minus birthweight, and pretty good performance numbers. Although he hasn't worked well in my herd, but he is working well in lot's of other herds. By the way, if you jump on http://www.cattlevisions.com you can view these bulls, their pedigrees, and their EPD's. Another bull I think is gonna be hot...is LT Rio Blanco...he has a little higher birthweight. But he has some incredible performance numbers... His progeny are outgrowing everything.

Hope that helps! Let me know what else I can do to help....
Thanks,
Heather

 

[hangna]

Heather,
We're Charolais breeders from WA state. We run approx 100 cows in a spring herd and 20-25 in the fall. We co-host a bull sale the last Saturday in February.
We're partners with ABS on a bull we bought from the Lindskov-Thiel in 2001, LT Prime Profit. Profit is a paternal brother to Rio, but with alot less BW (we've used him on heifers). He also appears to be homo polled as we've had over 90+ calves born here at the ranch, bred to a bunch of horned cows, and all polled.
What semen company do you work for?
Take a look at our website for more information on our breeding program.
http://www.charolaisnw.com
Leslie Alexander

 

[heather3_27]

Hey Leslie,
Thanks for the post. Is ABS moving quite a bit of semen on that bull for you? Just curious. I think I've seen the ABS ad in the Journal on that bull. I have seen so many bulls, and work with so many different breeds with my job, sometimes it gets fairly confusing. Though being a Charolais breeder, I tend to pay a little closer attention to the Charolais!
Homo polled would be a great selling point with your bull, as well as the pedigree, and his lower birthweight. My husband I were actually just discussing what to use on a couple of our cows, cause they have a little higher birth weight and we didn't want to breed them to anything too high. So I might have to take a closer look at Prime Profit, though this year I think we are gonna try some Polled Value. We'll see...
I actually work for Cattle Visions out of central Missouri. If you ever need anything, or have a question feel free to call us! 866-356-4565. I am gonna go check out your website now. Best of luck with Prime Profit sales!! And hope you have a great spring breeding season.

Thanks,
Heather

 

[ollie]

I might be interested in a little semen on a Charolais bull that has super good actual carcass data and whose calves are big and thick . Calves need to be 100lbs at birth or so. I don't need any 140 pounders though. If any of ya'll know of such a bull pm me or post it here. I prefer polled but not absolute on that. If there isn't a white bull then a red semi would work.

 

[hangna]

ABS is doing a good job for us. They're very easy to work with.

The Polled Value bulls is another good one. We own half interest in his grandsire "1172"

We're AI'ing 50 cows to Profit in the morning. Pulled CIRDs yesterday. Profit is back in South Dakota (LT Ranch) for the spring breeding season. W're going to try some LT Western Edge (another ABS bull) on the Profit daughters.

 

[heather3_27]

I am glad ABS is doing a good job for you. That is great!! Glad to know Profit is back at LT Ranch. We do quite a bit of dealing with Brent on a few of their bulls.

As far as a Charolais bull with good carcass traits. I would take a look at $$ Montana Silver. I was trying to pull his EPD's for you...not sure they'll be 100# calves, but half of that depends on your cows, and I don't really know what you are breeding too. Montana Silver is a Genex bull, I do have a little semen on him. But you might want to check out his numbers for yourself before you go with that. I'd say he would be the best on carcass traits. We just had a set of twins out of him, and another bull calf...

As far as finding something to throw a heavier calf...check out Thomas' new bull. Redneck.

Good Luck!
Heather

 

[hangna]

We try to stay away from bulls that sire calves 100 lbs or higher. Our commercial bull buyers won't look twice at them. So sense selling them problems anyway. We run around 85-90 lbs most years depending on how well the cows winter. We start calving in early January and are normally 99% done by March 15th.

Are you going to Brents sale on the 16th? We're planning to pick up another bull this year. We've got our eye on a couple in the catalog. We've seen the Silver calves before but we're leaning towards the Assertion bulls, depending on how they look. Of course you can never go wrong with a WW.

Nancy emailed us the ultrasound data and the ribeyes are impressive. We've got our IMF scores where we want them (high 3's - low 4's) but could use a little bigger REA. We've been ultrasounding our yearling bulls and replacement heifers since 1998. It didn't take long to find out which cattle didn't work!

What's the name of your cattle operation? What bloodlines is your herd based on?
Leslie

 

[Parkerson Cattle Co.]

Baldridge Fastrack throws some great calves, low birth weights high weaning and yearling weights.
wouldn't use wyoming wind.. more money behind him than real bull throws small calves, they lack in bone and muscle
polled value is good
wouldn't use buds my guy 002 had a major problem with high birth weights not sure if it was from feeding the cows to much protein, or if the genetics made a bad cross, but over 6 calves in the hundreds
currently using a bull from nipp called field rep, have some calves next year, new bull not sure how they'll turn out, i've got my fingers crossed.

J.P.

 

[ollie]

Fellas, nice to know what you use but I want a bull that throws 100 pounders if I am going to use a white bull. I shouldn't have to explain but I have a set of cows that can have 110 to 120 pounders with out pulling many. I want to wean the calves as 9 to 10 month old creep fed calves with their throat cut hanging on a hook weighing 1000 pounds. Not too many and just for grins. Now , if I want to use a white bull do you know of the bull I need. I want heavy bw and high weaning and good actual carcas data. Hundred pound calves are just 20 pounds closer to a thousand than 80's.

 

[Lngvew]

Ollie,
I know of a few that may fit your needs, JBJ AJ 787G, HBR Performer 181, RA Bigcat 9017 & 2UP Peugeot ET. All of these bulls are know for higher birth weights. I have used the 181 bull, throws upper 90's and the semens cheap. He has been around a long time. Just sold a daughter out of him on the market, she weighted 2025, 3 weeks after calving. If you want 7 plus frame he will do it. Go to http://www.charolaisusa.com and do a search under the sire selector, you will get epd's and carcass data.

Heather,
My plans are to use the following AI bulls this year, True Value, Smokester and Choice Plus. These guys do a good job across the board. But I have to say you need to do your homework as to what they are bred to, there are a couple of crosses that just dont work.

I bred 20 Charolais heifers to Fasttrack 2 years ago, biggest calf was 68 lbs, He works great when it come to birth weight, calves were shorter than I like (boxy looking). Be careful not to stand behind the heifer when she makes that first good push or you will be holdin a calf.

 

[ollie]

Lngvew, you are on the right track. Tell me one like that with about a 6 to 6.5 frame.

 

[Lngvew]

There are a couple that fit that frame size, one is Cigar the other is Budsmydad. I have used both and the calves are good. Their birth weights will be around 90 lbs based on my experience. The only draw back is the availability of semen. Both are dead and the price is up there. There is another bull I have used called 2244, he is a 6.5 - 7 frame and may work for you. His semen is readily avaiable and at a good price. I am sure there are others.[/quote]

 

[stocky]

Heather,
I am not a charlois breeder but use charlois bulls on all my cattle. I have alot of red cows and black crossbred cows that have some red in their background. With the charlois bulls, they throw yellow calves and yellow calves are the only thing here in sw missouri that outsells angus cents per pound. They also will outweigh angus by about 100 lbs at time to sell. You can use those facts to support selling your charlois semen. Keep up the good work of keeping those great charlois bulls availabe

 

[heather3_27]

Hey Guys,
I swear, being in the middle of the AI season around here makes it hard to spend anytime checking message boards. But it's good for business, and it's a fun time!
Lngvew: Sounds like a good line up for the year. We are using Smokester this year as well, and some Polled Value... I would like to try some Rio Blanco, but think I am gonna wait for now. I am trying to talk my Dad into using Blanco, but so far he's standing firm.
As far as Fasttrack...our calves were too big out of him, which is crazy, and normally I would blame that on the cows since he's notorious for very low birth weight calves... But those same cows bred to Eliminator had 80# calves, where Fasttrack was throwing 110# + calves every time for us. Strangest thing. Then to boot, we just didn't see the performance that we thought we should have out of him. I've seen some really nice Fasttrack cattle, they just aren't coming off of my place. He just doesnt cross well in my herd.

As far as Cigar, I have a guy that has some semen available but wants $350 for it, I think that's too high. It's auctioning in this area for less than that. Budsmydad is gonna run in the $75-$100 range, and 2244 is gonna be harder to locate probably and my guess is around $250.
Good luck everyone.
Heather

 

[MikeC]

Hey Guys,
I swear, being in the middle of the AI season around here makes it hard to spend anytime checking message boards. But it's good for business, and it's a fun time!
Lngvew: Sounds like a good line up for the year. We are using Smokester this year as well, and some Polled Value... I would like to try some Rio Blanco, but think I am gonna wait for now. I am trying to talk my Dad into using Blanco, but so far he's standing firm.
As far as Fasttrack...our calves were too big out of him, which is crazy, and normally I would blame that on the cows since he's notorious for very low birth weight calves... But those same cows bred to Eliminator had 80# calves, where Fasttrack was throwing 110# + calves every time for us. Strangest thing. Then to boot, we just didn't see the performance that we thought we should have out of him. I've seen some really nice Fasttrack cattle, they just aren't coming off of my place. He just doesnt cross well in my herd.

As far as Cigar, I have a guy that has some semen available but wants $350 for it, I think that's too high. It's auctioning in this area for less than that. Budsmydad is gonna run in the $75-$100 range, and 2244 is gonna be harder to locate probably and my guess is around $250.
Good luck everyone.
Heather

Heather, I am surprised to hear the Fasttrack calves were heavier than the 032's. That's not the norm. As far as the Fasttrack's not performing, I have seen the same thing all over the south. Wind's also. More for conformation.

You needn't worry about the Rio calves being too big. We have bred lots of 1st calf heifers with no problems and if you want thick growthy calves, I recommend him highly. I could furnish you some convincing data for your Dad, should you care to.
BTW, I released some Rio semen to Cattle Visions last week, could you find out if they received it yet?
Thanks in advance.

 

[heather3_27]

Hey Mike,
I agree very unusual that the Fasttracks came heavier than the 032's. We thought so too, but like I said...he's just something that doesn't mesh well for us. Some people are having a great luck with him, but we're not one of them.
We've had some good Wind calves. We've got a bull calf now, that I am gonna show, and he's really coming on strong. We have a Wind heifer right that that is probably one of the best calves that's ever come off our place... Of course that's semen we had in the tank, I wouldn't be trying to buy any now. I think the calves are a bit finer boned than say the Cigar calves. Now those calves have been impressive. Heavy boned....all that I've seen. Stout, and easy fleshing. Possibly a little on the skittish side...
On Rio Blanco, I know he carries the growth potential to a new high for the breed. I would love some more data on him. I am reccomending him highly to those that call me, just because of what I've seen out of him. I have some friends that had a bull calf out of him, and he outgrew a 908 son I had at least 2 - 1. September calves, the Blano calf was actually a a week or so younger than the 908, and he probably had 400# or better on that calf. I couldn't believe the difference...it was amazing...and shameful for me! I mean I know the 908's don't perform like the Blanco, but I didn't expect that much difference.
What stud is Blanco coming in from Mike? We haven't gotten any yet. But let me know where it's coming from and I might be able to give you a better idea of when it'll be here. By the way, if you can...send that convincing date to [email protected] as well as the stud information. This time of year my email get more use than the message boards.
I caught a few minutes this morning, unusual...but needed. It's really hoppin around here...we are definitely in the midst of the breeding season!
Good to hear from you and hope to talk to you again soon!
Later,
Heather

 

[agrstofer]

Know of a bull that doesn't quite get to the 100 lb...probably mid to uper 90's and throws tremendous calves that are thick. They have a lot of gut to them and hang tremendous carcasses. I believe some of them tops of the carcasses at decatur county last year. PM me if our interested

 

[ollie]

Check your pm