Charolais Bulls

[dn91]

Thinking of purchasing some Charolais bulls for a terminal cross, I was talking to a friend about it and he said I was the biggest idiot for doing that because they will calve out so hard, they don't get up and suck right away and they are just slow going as calves, but he said they're the best cross for the feedlot once they're weaned. These bulls will be run on a couple hundred cows and they are mostly commercial angus type cows.

Now obviously I would try to buy bulls with a BW around 80 pounds to lessen the strain on calving but if the whole thing about the calves being slow at birth I don't want to mess with them. What are your thoughts on this? I've never heard of Char calves being slow at birth but maybe it's true. If it were true I feel like people wouldn't buy Char bulls to cross with there cows.

 

[Taurus]

When my late grandpa had Char x, there was never any issues with Char x calves being slow at birth. But I'm guess that it has do with the size of calves. Larger calves tend to be slow at birth (no matter what breed they are).

 

[Bigfoot]

Charlois bulls is about all I run. I don't think your friend knows what he is talking about. I had a little bout with a bull not being able to breed last year. It was a black chi. I was going to go the other way, and breed him to my char cows. He wound up not being able to breed. I couldn't find any charlois bulls any where. I ended up using some bulls that looked pretty good, but weren't char. My weaning weights were really down. I have now learned my lesson, and am trying to keep some young char bulls on hand, so I always have some backups.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I don't know what kind of experience your friend has had, but IMO he is wrong.

Around here people will tell you Charolais and Charolais cross cattle will do anything black cattle can do except the chars will grow better and the cows will wean bigger calves. that's always the case, but there is nothing wrong with what you want to do.

The only thing to consider is how your market takes the grey calves you will have with the angus char cross. Here as long as there good calves they sell fine, but in some markets they don't do as good.

 

[greybeard]

The Charolais on my place are pretty much self keepers no matter what. Lost one calf this year on day 3 and I think a coyote got it and that's the first one in years--none have ever seen a calf jack. Good mommas and the calves go right to the udders without any help from me.

 

[A.J.]

I've got a buddy that calves out around 100-125 purebred Charolais and Char X cows every year, and they don't have any more calving issues than others running other breeds. Their cows just get checked on every few days, so they have to be easy doers and good calf raisers, or they wouldn't last. I would just make sure to select for a bull with good birthweight EPD's if that is a big concern for you using a Charolais.

 

[midtncattle]

Here are some of those slow growers your friend was talking about!

 

[CKC1586]

What State do you live in??
Just curious....

 

[dn91]

I'm from Central Nebraska, we calve from March to Early May