Charolais x blonde d' aquitaine

[gabbyellepaige]

I just bred my 18 month old Charolais heifer.
She is my first heifer and when I graduate high school I want to start a show cattle type ranch.
I was thinking of a Charolais x blonde d' Aquitaine cross for a steer.
I love my cattle big and hearty so what do you guys think of this cross?
Yay/Nay.
Thank you

 

[houstoncutter]

not trying to be harsh, but that cross will get you gate cut quick..A cross like that will weigh 1500 to 1600 pounds if finished to show standards, and they like em to weigh 1250 to 1275 most times....You will sometimes see a judge that will take something a 100 pouns over that, but not often...

 

[VLS_GUY]

Gabby,

The Blonde D'Aquitaine breed was formed using Charolais and Limousin Bulls on the native blonde landraces of Southwestern France so the Blonde D'Aquitaine has plenty of Charolais already. The Blonde D'Aquitaine breed is a new bred only getting a registry in around 1959. Charles Degaulle did not get along well with the deeply conservative land owning Charolais and Limousin Breeders so a performance based breed using the best of the two breeds was formed to compete.
Hybrid vigor will not be maximized in such a cross. But the biggest problem will be in finding a good Blonde bull on AI that is as good as your heifer (if memory serves me correctly) A blonde is either very good or very bad with few in between.
If you want big and raw boned I would look at using a performance Simmental like Wyven Magnficent or a performance purebred red bull like Ellingson Ideal.
You might also consider using a Charolais power bull like SVY Pilgrim. He is one of the most powerful bulls available on AI.

 

[ANAZAZI]

From what I know; the blonde dacuitaine breed originated from mixing quercy, blonde de pyrenee, and garonnais. There were discussions to also include the bearnaise,but nothing happened. Any blonde breeder will deny that charolais or limousine played any role in forming the breed. They cross well on charolais, but as stated above, the offspring will be huge.

 

[jilleroo]

We put purebred stud blonde bulls over our charolais heifers for several years in the 1980s for easier calving (smaller lighter good-shaped calves) and it worked well. We calved out hundreds of them to the blondes with minimal problems. In fact, we only sold our last blonde bull a couple of years ago so I guess we had them in the herd in some way or another for over 20 years! The grown progeny was lighter in weight than pure char and we did not feel they improved our herd at all but the progeny was in demand from butchers because they yield so well. As Anazazi says, I do not think they were bred from char or limo. So Gabby, you may not get a whopper calf from the cross at all. Their temperament can vary, much like a limo.

 

[ANAZAZI]

There are lines developed for crossing on dairy for veal production. Low frame (for blondes, anyway), extreme dressing percentages, and easy calving. While daily growth suffers a bit. Other blondes (most) have bigger calves, good growth, and become really tall. The shape and length of a blonde sired calf gives a lot of calf per calving difficulty compared to most breeds.

 

[VLS_GUY]

Anazazi,

The breeds you mentioned that the Blonde D'Aquitaine came from were all for dual purpose and draft use. In fact some of these original blondes were imported into Canada (to improve maternal traits as the breed had fertility problems). They needed to improve growth and muscle in a hurry in order to become competitive and that is where using the Limo and Char bulls came in.
This breed has cattle that look like Charolais or Limousin or in confirmation and color. A big variation in performance and conformation. The char influenced cattle have better growth. Maternal traits? forget about it. This is a terminal cross for carcass traits only.

 

[double v]

Saw this cross and it works, used a Blonde bull for years while doing commercial cattle it works. But look into Blonde's bred to Hereford works great. milk and meat and good dispositions. good luck

 

[ANAZAZI]

Anazazi,

The breeds you mentioned that the Blonde D'Aquitaine came from were all for dual purpose and draft use. In fact some of these original blondes were imported into Canada (to improve maternal traits as the breed had fertility problems). They needed to improve growth and muscle in a hurry in order to become competitive and that is where using the Limo and Char bulls came in.
This breed has cattle that look like Charolais or Limousin or in confirmation and color. A big variation in performance and conformation.

If this you are talking about occured in canada; then maybe so. Not in france. At home in france they are all fine boned, heavy muscled, none are charolais colour. Most all are wheat to yellow with the occational red.

 

[ANAZAZI]

Maternal traits? forget about it. This is a terminal cross for carcass traits only.

Agree with you on this one. A really good terminal.

 

[ANAZAZI]

Saw this cross and it works, used a Blonde bull for years while doing commercial cattle it works. But look into Blonde's bred to Hereford works great. milk and meat and good dispositions. good luck

I used blonde on swedish reds a few years ago; these crosses had the complete package; but I assume that the milk came from the swedish reds.

 

[gabbyellepaige]

Maternal traits? forget about it. This is a terminal cross for carcass traits only.

Agree with you on this one. A really good terminal.

What exactly does terminal mean?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I just bred my 18 month old Charolais heifer.
She is my first heifer and when I graduate high school I want to start a show cattle type ranch.
I was thinking of a Charolais x blonde d' Aquitaine cross for a steer.
I love my cattle big and hearty so what do you guys think of this cross?
Yay/Nay.
Thank you

"big and hearty " really don't go hand in hand with "show cattle steers". You need to cut down on the frame size and keep them good & thick. Char x Bl Aq will be too framey & too heavy for the show ring. There are some really good Char x clubby bulls, but they are pretty moderate in their size.
Finished steers should be between 1200# - 1350#. (as close to the 1250# range as possible) and around a 5 frame.
If you are serious about getting into the show cattle production, you need to produce what the BUYER wants & is willing to pay for, not what you "love".
Sorry, that is reality. Of course, we may all be wrong, maybe you have a frame 5 heifer. But, you need to breed her to a marbling type sire - like an Angus, because Charolais aren't know for their marbling. NOT BASHING, just repeating research. I'm not familiar with the marbling of Bl Aq, but I would guess they are more of a growth/muscle breed like the Charolais.

Terminal means the offspring (male and female) are all going to a feedlot - none used for breeding.

 

[chippie]

It is not used as breeding stock. It ends up on a dinner plate regardless of sex.

ETA: oops posted at the same time at jeanne. A question -- is she already bred or or you deciding about what to breed her too?

If she has been bred and does not catch, you can rethink about what breed of bull would meet your goals. What does well in Texas may not necessarily be what does well in other states.

 

[houstoncutter]

no offspring will be retained for breeding purposes, thus terminal

 

[gabbyellepaige]

A question -- is she already bred or or you deciding about what to breed her too?

She is already bred to a Charolais bull and if she has a heifer I want to breed her to a blonde just to see how it turns out.

 

[gabbyellepaige]

How do you determine what the frame size/score is?

 

[chippie]

The American Angus Association has a good page about it.

http://www.angus.org/Performance/AHIR/PerfFrameScore.aspx

 

[VLS_GUY]

Anazazi,

The Blonde that show heavy Char influence were very pale imports from France. They looked like what many red factor Cgarolais look like today. In fact the red factor Charolais is the biggest problem the Blonde D'Aquitaine ( and to a smaller extent the Limousin) faces today in North America. You get the same color with more reliable performance data.
If you use a Blonde just make sure it is a quality animal.

 

[MO_cows]

Never owned any Blondes, but bought some Blonde locker beef a couple times and it was great. Even though it was lean, there was moisture in the meat and it had good tenderness and flavor.