Charolais Bull

[kenny thomas]

I know a lot of you will frown but I bought two Charolais bulls this week. Delivered yesterday. 13 month old and 15 month old. 74lb and 82lb birth wt, good calving ease EPD, with slightly above average growth.
Every few years I still have to back to what has always worked well for me.
Still have 4 Black Simmy bulls for the black cows.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Ain't nothing wrong with using Char bulls. Heck i use red limi's.

 

[BC]

The Charolais cross calves sell as well as the blacks in my area. Good choice.

 

[novaman]

What kinda cows are you breeding with em Kenny? I used to have a mainly Char herd but have gotten more into Balancers as of late. Been thinking about getting a Char bull to cross some of my reds back to and bring some more of that Char blood in the herd. I shoot for tan to light red calves and they always sell well for me.

 

[VLS_GUY]

Kenny,

Unless you are breeding heifers your Angus Simmi cross females you can use a Charolais bull with average birth weight and calving ease numbers with confidence. You should have plenty of milk so those calves should take off.
By the way if you want to keep the calves red or black use a red Charolais bull. In Canada enough red Charolais bulls exist that it has become common to use them on commercial herds including Limousin cross herds.

 

[novaman]

By the way if you want to keep the calves red or black use a red Charolais bull. In Canada enough red Charolais bulls exist that it has become common to use them on commercial herds including Limousin cross herds.

I actually saw a catelog from a local seedstock producer that had some Char X Red Angus composites. They looked like some pretty nice bulls. Toyed with the idea of it but without EPD's that is a no go. Also looked at Red Char but haven't found any nice ones in this area. With the dairy I don't get too far from home to find those good ones up north.

 

[BSKDixie]

Kenny I have spent time in Central Va, and I know how you guys out west especially Shenandoah and Western VA areas like to use Char bulls, and I have seen some great great feeder calves come from producers out there, definitely would like to see some pictures of those bulls, good luck with them

 

[VLS_GUY]

Novaman,

Wells Charolais in Conde, South Dakota have some reds and they also have some of the highest powered EPD cattle in the Charolais breed. Genex also has a dark red bull that is worth a try as well.

 

[kenny thomas]

Have not seen any red ones here yet. Like the looks of them in the sale catalogs. What color calves do they get from black cows?
I will try to get some pictures this weekend.

 

[VLS_GUY]

Kenny,

If you use a homozygous red Charolais and the Angus cows are homozygous black you will get black calves. If the cows are crossbred you will likely get a some reds. Of course you can solve that problem by using one of the few homozygous black Charolais bulls. My solution is to purposely use the Charolais diluter gene to my advantage to identify the calves as Charolais cross. It can be harder to identify red Charolais cross calves from the legion of other red calves being sold.