chiangus and chianina pros and cons
- Thread starter cleav
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We use to X breed with ChiAngus bulls on Angus cows. The Chi really puts a lot of frame on the calfs. Some need it, some don't. The replacment heifers didn't milk well. The birth weight became extremely high on the calves, and we lost a couple of cows due to that. The Chi cattle also had a tendency to be crazy. They were, at the time, all the rave in the show ring, don't know if they still are.
Ditto to what Brad stated above. They fell out of favor around here fairly quickly. They were all the rage in the showring here probably starting mid to late 70's or so but a lot of guys developed problems with them. I've never owned any,but I have worked with them some. As far as crazy goes,some of them probably could have held their own with Campgrounds' Tigers. Some folks thought it was the cross that made them act up,although my neighbors straight Chi herd always seemed a little wired. Also seemed to me like most of the stock available here then was bred to an extreme for certain traits(what the judge was looking for) at the cost of other things that might have made them them better moms and tolerable to work with for the commercial people. Before the war starts I will say I know there are excellent cattle in every breed and don't mean to offend any Chi or Chi-Angus breeders who get along well with them.
I agree with the previous posts regarding their disposition. There are a few nutty cattle in every breed, but Chi influenced cattle seem to have a higher percentage than most.
From a commercial stand point, assuming you find some good disposition Chi cattle, they are probably best when crossed with cattle with too much fat. However, in my personal opinion, if I was trying to add leaness to my calf crop I would likely use a Limousin or Charolais bull. I may even try a Romagnolia.
A couple years ago I saw the Chi association's breakdown of "Active Members by State." Indiana and Ohio were the two top states with active members, and neither of these states is very big in overall beef production. However, the club calf business is huge in these two states which I think indicates where this breed is mostly used; to produce show cattle.
There are dozens of breeds of beef cattle and everyone of them offers something unique. However, if you're interested in producing breeding stock to sell to commercial producers I think there are several breeds that are a better choice than Chi's or Chi-Angus.
From a commercial stand point, assuming you find some good disposition Chi cattle, they are probably best when crossed with cattle with too much fat. However, in my personal opinion, if I was trying to add leaness to my calf crop I would likely use a Limousin or Charolais bull. I may even try a Romagnolia.
A couple years ago I saw the Chi association's breakdown of "Active Members by State." Indiana and Ohio were the two top states with active members, and neither of these states is very big in overall beef production. However, the club calf business is huge in these two states which I think indicates where this breed is mostly used; to produce show cattle.
There are dozens of breeds of beef cattle and everyone of them offers something unique. However, if you're interested in producing breeding stock to sell to commercial producers I think there are several breeds that are a better choice than Chi's or Chi-Angus.
Chi and Chiangus cows make excellent replacement heifers actually. My brother in law did an internship with Dieter bros. while he was in college and they have the biggest herd of chi and chiangus cattle i've ever seen and ifthey are bred right and you do your research jsut like any breed of cattle y9ou will be sucessful breeding them. only drawback to them like mentioned before is there frame size and extremely large BE it's not uncommon for calves to be well over 100 lbs. Dieter bros did a study on the BW of the chi bulls and they bred them to old fashioned simmi and char cowsthat most of them weighed well over 1700 lbs and could carry a big calf and the avg BW on there calves was 108 lbs the biggest being 128 lbs now you wouldn't want that bred to an angus cow. But they delivered them with no problems what so ever. But if you swap it around and breed your angus bull to your chi cows you'll always be sucessful that way you can't go wrong.
