Charolais or Hereford

[milso47]

I'm trying to decide what breed I want to start with. I'm not sure if its possible but I want to sell the steers/bulls and hold back my heifer calves. Which one would throw more quality heifers? If I go with the Herefords I gonna put a Brahma bull on them and basically supply myself with replacement commercial cows. I think this is called a maternal cross. I will then put a Charolais bull on the Braford type cows. If I go with Charolais heifers I probably won't do any cross breeding with them but I'm worried how they will sustain themselves in the South AL heat. There are plenty of people around with them though and they seem to do well, plus Tony Walden has a bull sale less than a mile from my house so I would have access to good bulls right down the road and possibly have a market for my bull calves. Any input is appreciated on my ideas.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

South Ala...I'd have to go herf. Bull,Brahman cow route..they handle the heat and humidity better...if you go herf cows, fall calving would be best..,chars do good in the heat..

 

[Rafter S]

South Ala...I'd have to go herf. Bull,Brahman cow route..they handle the heat and humidity better...if you go herf cows, fall calving would be best..,chars do good in the heat..

I agree, if it's a choice between those two. And welcome to the forum.

 

[milso47]

Thank you. Glad to have found a place like this.

I'm leaning hard toward the Charolais but I like the F1 tigerstripes as momma cows as well, plus I've seen some calves off a good Charolais bull and some Braford cows and they looked really good. I got a little less than a year before I make a decision.

Appreciate the responses

 

[shortybreeder]

If it's just a choice between those two, definitely go with the Hereford. We have kept a few charolais heifers as replacements and not a single one would produce enough milk to grow a calf. We even had 1 charxhol heifer that looked like death at weaning time yet only brought in a 300lb steer, and didn't breed back so she was sent to slaughter after 1 lactation. I've always followed the belief that the only people who have any use for a charolais cow are the people producing charolais bulls.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

You must have really had some sorry Charolais.

 

[Muddy]

I agree with Red Bull Breeder. I knew some people have straight char and char x, they milk very well and raised a dandy calf. There's even a commercial herd of straight char cows running with a Hereford bull few miles away from us.

 

[milso47]

You basically have to have a cross cow and purebred bull right?

 

[Andyva]

I'm sure they are different in different places but all of the Charolais I've had dealings with came closer to having too much milk than not enough. Not until I started reading internet forums did I discover that Charolais are a terminal breed.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Yellow baldies sell really well as a terminal calf, not much of a market in this area for those F-1 heifers.
Not they won't do well in your area, here if you want top dollar it needs to have Brahman for the
back to the farm crowd. If you trim the ear to much it just doesn't sell well for the back to farm buyers.
Leave to much on and you take a hit in the barn from the order buyers.

 

[milso47]

I'm sure they are different in different places but all of the Charolais I've had dealings with came closer to having too much milk than not enough. Not until I started reading internet forums did I discover that Charolais are a terminal breed.

With it being a terminal breed does that mean that its harder to get quality replacement heifers from your calves. What I'm asking is it a breed that you could sell the steers off, and hold the heifers back to expand your herd.

I could possibly lease a different yearling bull every year so no worries about inbreeding

 

[Big Cheese]

We are keeping our Charolais crosses as replacements but we have Longhorn mommas so it's a different ball game with them. The few Charolais cross beef cows we have are excellent milkers and mommas. I think they would be great to keep as heifers to increase your herd. Over time though your cows could get to big.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I have seen a lot of Char Hereford cross cows that work really good. Same people that buy the yellow steer will also pay for the heifer mate to them.

 

[Chappydog]

Since you are wanting Charolais why not mix in some Santa Gertrudis. You get your wheat color calves that should do well at the barn and some very nice replacement heifers. That's the cross that had been working well for many years on our farm.

 

[Andyva]

Terminal usually means you sell them all for feeders and don't keep them as cows. Around here a lot of people used to keep Charolais and Mousey cows. Lack of milk and lack of maternal traits was never an issue. Sometimes they would try to kill you over calves, sometimes they blew their bags from teats too big for a calf to suck, and they got awfully big but there were a lot of good cows that raised big calves. Char influenced cows never seemed to have too much trouble having big calves, throw a char bull over some small framed heifers and you might have problems, back before low birth weight chars came on the scene, but the cows could have a baby elephant. I guess people finally figured out that they weren't supposed to keep them for cows, because you don't see as many any more. Probably some professor published a paper on it , or something.

 

[wacocowboy]

If you go Hereford on Brahma you will take a good hit on your steers, so I think it would be better to just buy Tiger heifers. You could also get Charbray heifers and put them with a Char bull for big yellow calves with some ear.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I would probaly go with the herferd in your environment, but you would not have much trouble with charolais. We ran straight charolais up until the late 90s when we switched to an angus bull. We keep our own heifers so our cows still have a heavy charolais influince. I have always thought they were fine cows. In my book the downside of char is large frame size (some of ours top 1,700 lb) and too protective of their calf. If we have to do anything with a newborn one person has to watch the cow with a pitchfork. The upside is very few birthing problems and higher weaning weights (at the cost if higher feed intake).

 

[Caustic Burno]

If you go Hereford on Brahma you will take a good hit on your steers, so I think it would be better to just buy Tiger heifers. You could also get Charbray heifers and put them with a Char bull for big yellow calves with some ear.

Your right they will kill him on the F-1 Tiger steers the order buyers don't want the heifers either there demand and price is driven by the back to the farm buyer as replacements.
He needs to look at what the majority of cowmen in his area are running.
They are running them for a reason they do well in that environment and bring the best money. Anyone that has been doing this for a while is going to have the cow with the highest returns standing in the pasture
with the lowest inputs in a commercial operation .
Here Brangus and Braford cows are king and queen in the pasture in at least 90% .
Angus, Brangus, Char and Hereford are the bulls you see. I haven't seen a Limm in years and they were very popular at one time. I can't recall the last Simm, or Gert bull in the area or through the barn.

 

[Big Cheese]

I would go with Hereford mommas and put a Charolais bull on them and get those Yellow baldies that will top the sell anywhere. Those heifers will also be good ones to keep as replacements as well. In my opinion yellow calves/cows are some of the best you can get.

 

[SJB]

Just a quick newbie question here -

What is the benefit from the char bull? Choice grade steers, good frame, good heifers, low BW, hide color, etc?