Charolais Bull

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TxStateCowboy

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I was wondering if a Charolais bull would work well on my Longhorn and cross herd for commercial use, has anyone here tried this cross (Char x LH) and how did it turn out? (size/growth/coloration/horn?)
 
Against my better judgement I will answer. I run a Char bull on my longhorns. The calfs come out small (despite the pallet head crapola) and run in color from spotted to tan,creme,red or white. They put on weight fast. I don't care for the horns the calfs get but is a LH trait. I bet I catch flack for this post. What with hatchet assed cows I run. :lol:
 
Well some may down the Longhorns and crossing them with a heavy quality euro-bull, but being 20 yrs old and going through college, i'll gladly pay only one third the cost of the average [quality] brangus cow and get 3 times the calf-factories... thats why i was wondering about char bull's weight gain and color.

The horns can be taken care of with an inexpensive tool or just a $60 burner.

The colors, hopefully, if the right bull is used, can be turned nearly solid- so i've heard. (or more market-acceptable than big spots, which have so much to do with the meat on the hook)

The weight gain problem also, as you just described, can be solved with the right bull

I plan on culling those whose calves won't conform to this objective. Please comment if you have one, i need every bit of info, input, criticism i can get.
 
I know multiple people that run a charolais bull on some longhorn cows. they have had a lot of success, and very little problems with the cows. Good luck.
 
My only suggestion is that you need to be sure and not use a Charolais bull with a high birth weight; some of those big ole white bulls sire some pretty big calves at birth, and some of the traditional LH cows are fairly small. Seems like a great way to add some muscle and extra growth to your calf crop.

Though I don't have any experience with Longhorns, I recently sold a Gelbvieh bull to a guy who runs Longhorn and longhorn cross cows. I've also had another LH breeder stop by looking for some Gelbvieh females to run with his LH bull. Apparently there has been quite a bit of success crossing the LH and Gelbviehs.
 
I'm not downing longhorns, you can breed to what ever you want, but we texans need to breed better cattle. Sounds like you feel you can make more money with longhorns, and you might be able to but when you or your family eat a steak with gristle in it and tough as a boot just think that may be a product of your breeding program. Get some cattle with marbling genetics and hold your head high because your a trying to make a difference.
 
well considering "you are what you eat", i would prefer to raise a tough and lean family, instead of add to the blubber diet that is so common in texas.

that was more a joke, but i would like to add the attributes of leaner and healthier to the quality of taste. my logic tells me "cross lean cattle with tasty fat cattle, and find something in the middle."

I don't like longhorns simply because i feel i can make more money with them, as i really enjoy their uniqueness as a breed and individually. I also am a supporter of efficiency and nature. They fit my bill.
 
Not trying to start another crazy limo thread but they
do tend to throw solid colored calves, and meaty.

You could wind up with a field full of crazy limo crossbreeds
with pointy horns!

hillbilly
 
Hillbilly you beat me to the punch. I think a limmy bull would add more consistency to the herd in addition to adding pounds. I would not suggest a limmy bull however if you were going to feed the calves to finish. As for the "crazy limmy" debate, there are good ones and bad ones in every breed. However, limousine does have a bad rap for disposition. I know the limousine breeders have made a real effort to change the disposition of their breed and I think they have done a very good job. We run both charolais and red limmy bulls. The limmy bulls are great to handle and we've had absolutely no problems with them.

If you are going to market your calves as feeders than you need to consider market dynamics. Consistency in weight and composition will bring you more money than large variations in color and size. For this reason I'd consider a limousine bull and probably focus on a red bull. The charolais bulls will give you more weight but you may lose this edge if your calves aren't consistent in color. I'm not familiar with the market dynamics in your area, but you may want to talk to the people that will be selling your cattle and get their opinion.
 
thanks ya'll, we have had much success with limousin as the herd sire to a longhorn herd in the past. Solid black and tan seem to bring the most money around here. I will be selling to the local auction most likely.

Our last old limo bull went to crap (old age) so we recently got rid of him before he couldnt get up anymore, so i was wanting to do research on charolais before replacing him with another limo. So charolais will most likely not bring consistent cream color?
 
I know very little about the longhorn breed but it's my understanding that there is a wide array of color patterns that can occur. The Charolais carry a diluter gene which will cause the yellow pigmentation when placed on red cattle. In fact, that is what we do in our herd. The Charolais bulls get put on red cattle and the limmy bulls on char x cows. I think hillbilly is correct in that a limmy bull may allow you to hide alot of color schemes because limmy bulls tend to throw darker solid colors which may keep you away from highlighting the color patterns apparent in longhorn cattle. Hillbilly correct me if I'm wrong, but the diluter gene in charolais will accent or bring to the front color markings as apposed to overriding or disguising them with a breed that throws dark solid color calves.

Look at the post Mahoney submitted. He states that he gets a wide range of color patterns with his charolais bulls on longhorn cows. Understanding that the two herds are not the same, there is however a possibility of getting multiple color patterns in your calf crop. I'm not sure about TX, but here in MO your calves will be sorted into like kind groups. And if you have a multitude of color patterns then you will sell many small groups of calves containing only a couple (or handful) of calves. This is not good. Order buyers do not like to buy calves in very small groups. They prefer to swing a big stick and buy uniform large groups of calves. The other option you have is to put your calves through a commingled sale where your calves will be mixed with other producers calves that are similar in size, sex, and color to yours. This would help you in the marketing of your calves if there is a large contrast in color patterns.
 

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