I have the Chiangus Black breed -- I started with 2 cows and a baby. I now have 3 cows, 2 heifers that are due in a few months, 2 girl calves, 1 bull calf and a 2 yr old bull. They are my pets -- but I am from Amarillo, TX and am finding out that this breed is not popular. Can anyone give me some insight?
Chiangus Breed
- Thread starter lilrue
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Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
Pretty much, the only time I see or hear of the breed is for show cattle - mainly club calves. They are used in combination with Maine-Anjou & Simmentals.
angusdave63
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Jeanne is right on and in my opinion show cattle are a whole diffrent world than beef production jmo with that said they are nice cattle and i am sure some bloodlines are more for comercial production David
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
I tried to eat one of those one time.
houstoncutter
Well-known member
They have the reputation for being a bit high headed. In the late 80's and early 90's when i was doing the club calf maket I had about 10 of em. Crossed em with a good fullblood Limmi bull. Made some fine show calfs that where winners in some shows.... I never had a problem with them at all..and they seemed to milk well enough.
Their are always a few knuckleheads in all breeds and personally I thik some of the semen and cattle that came into this country in the early days from Europe were rejects that the European's didnt want...sort of a "lets pull a fast one on the yanks." I sure cant speak for all breeds.... but Prince Pompadour, one of the first Limmi bulls should have been cut before he got off the boat...That one bull caused a lot of the problems that Limmi breeders are still trying to correct today... He was nutter than a rabid squirrel and had nuts on him the size of the same squirrel..
Good luck with your animals
Their are always a few knuckleheads in all breeds and personally I thik some of the semen and cattle that came into this country in the early days from Europe were rejects that the European's didnt want...sort of a "lets pull a fast one on the yanks." I sure cant speak for all breeds.... but Prince Pompadour, one of the first Limmi bulls should have been cut before he got off the boat...That one bull caused a lot of the problems that Limmi breeders are still trying to correct today... He was nutter than a rabid squirrel and had nuts on him the size of the same squirrel..
Good luck with your animals
choward2955jd
Well-known member
I raise Chianina Cattle here in Ky. I will agree on some things folks say about the breed. Somewhere in time the breed has shifted from cattle to showing steers. In my opinion they have lost their way. Some of the cattle are high headed but are not. I raise the Chimaine and Chiangus and a small herd of Fullblood Chianina.
I have been raising them since 1985. The are pretty good cattle in my opinion. I have used other breeds of bulls and cows and they have problems as well. (Not milking well, wild etc...)
The one problem I have with them is that now you can use a 1% Chiangus bull breed him to a Angus cow and still register the calf as a chiangus. Makes no sense
Love talking abou this breed and raising them
Most folks who dont like the breed no nothing about them.
I have been raising them since 1985. The are pretty good cattle in my opinion. I have used other breeds of bulls and cows and they have problems as well. (Not milking well, wild etc...)
The one problem I have with them is that now you can use a 1% Chiangus bull breed him to a Angus cow and still register the calf as a chiangus. Makes no sense
Love talking abou this breed and raising them
Most folks who dont like the breed no nothing about them.
houstoncutter
Well-known member
Choward 2955jd....you say you have some fullbloods... hows the sales going...I know many years ago I tried to buy a fullblood bull here in Texas, but was unsucessful. I believe the breeders name was Mize or something like that, he had the only fullbloods around. I always wanted a Fullblood Chi to put on Brahman cattle. Nuthin cleans up the leather like a fullblood Chi
KYBrown
Member
Hey choward2955jd, what part of KY are you in? I'm in South Central, and would love to hear about your Chianinas. Perhaps you can email me?
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
houstoncutter":qvofkxen said:
There's been a herd out on Chalk Mountain (about 70 miles south south-west of Fort Worth) going back in to the early 80's. It was the first I had ever seen of this breed in real life.
choward2955jd
Well-known member
I bought my cattle from Walter Mize in Hico Texas. The are good cattle. Not priced to far from market price. Mr. Mize passed away a couple of years ago. His manager is taking care of the ranches at this time Charles McDonald he is a real good person to talk to. Ibought my Bulls for $1500. and $2500.00.houstoncutter":2sctn5ls said:
choward2955jd
Well-known member
KyBrown I live in Eastern Ky. Bath County not much here but cows and corn. I have a small herd at this time. I do louve them they are not like other cattle we have. If you need any help or questions about them please fell free to email me. I like talking about Chi cattle. We have about 100 chi cross cows and like i said just a small herd of fullblood chianina. We are currently running 2 Fullblood bulls with our cows. I have a small group of 1/2 blood chi cows having calves now and they look good to me.KYBrown":1q0w8fhb said:
My email is [email protected]
Hope to hear from you
Chris Howard
FFA Advisor
houstoncutter
Well-known member
houstoncutter":rd43betw said:
Yea that was the fella, guess they have come down in price a bit. This was in the late 80's, and he was wanting $4500 for the yearling fullblood I liked. Heck i want even pay that much for a bull today unless I was gonna collect him breed everything AI and turn him back out to do clean up work..
Third Row
Well-known member
There was plenty of momentum in the breed for non-show steer stuff until Dieter held their dispersal. Since then it seems like they no longer have the marketing for it.
Chiangus cattle can do a lot of commercial herds a lot of good, if you buy cattle from one of the more commercially focused Chiangus breeders. Good Chiangus cattle will grade well, have big REA and less fat. Several Chi cattle also grow well and convert feed efficiently.
Dennis Clarahan and his sons in Iowa have a really nice herd of Chiangus and sell several bulls every year to commercial breeders. They have lots of feedlot data on how their cattle perform, and also participate in the Chi associations feedlot contest every year. Their cattle consistently rank at or near the top in feed efficiency, which is especially important today with high feed prices.
Willow Oaks in TN is another commercially focused breeder. If you contact the Chi association they will send you their commercially focused periodical that is published a few times a year and has advertisements from many commercially focused Chi breeders.
Though I have never owned any Chi influenced cattle, I have seen many over the years. My biggest concern with the cows is that some of them don't seem to milk real well and I've seen some pretty hard fleshing Chi influenced cows. I know there are good milking, easy fleshing Chiangus cows, so it is just a matter of sorting through the cattle to find the good ones; as is the case with any breed.
Dennis Clarahan and his sons in Iowa have a really nice herd of Chiangus and sell several bulls every year to commercial breeders. They have lots of feedlot data on how their cattle perform, and also participate in the Chi associations feedlot contest every year. Their cattle consistently rank at or near the top in feed efficiency, which is especially important today with high feed prices.
Willow Oaks in TN is another commercially focused breeder. If you contact the Chi association they will send you their commercially focused periodical that is published a few times a year and has advertisements from many commercially focused Chi breeders.
Though I have never owned any Chi influenced cattle, I have seen many over the years. My biggest concern with the cows is that some of them don't seem to milk real well and I've seen some pretty hard fleshing Chi influenced cows. I know there are good milking, easy fleshing Chiangus cows, so it is just a matter of sorting through the cattle to find the good ones; as is the case with any breed.
choward2955jd
Well-known member
The big problem with the Chianina breed oddly enough in my opinion is the folks raising nothing but show cattle. Not that they all have damaged the breed but some of these folks have set these cattle up for nothing more than the great show steer animal. The cow side of the breed has been forgotten about. I can remember when i was in high school when you picked up a A.I. Book there was a section for the Chianina breed and many bulls were listed. When you look at a book now there is no section for the breed other than Composite breed. They have lost a great deal of ground in myy opinion.
This year at the Ky Beef EXPO they only had 12 animals when i can remember when i was in high school they could have as many as 30 head or more. I think the breed has lost to much ground to ever recover to be very popular anymore. Most folks that show them have them registered in 2 breeds which to means they can sell them 2 ways if needed depending on the sale they would be in.
So many of the bulls today are so low percenatge chis that it is silly to even call them Chianina bulls. How can you take a 1% chi bull and breed him to a cow and call that calf a chianina.
The bulls that i use are bulls that their calves will put on weight fast and to sell for top price at the local stockyards. I am now using Fullblood Chianina bulls to increase the size of my cows and to sell heavier steers in the Fall.
I dont know in my opinion if the breed can ever make the comeback to the main stream. Most of the bulls being used are from just a handfull of blooldlines and not going out there for the Fullblood buls to help change the breed.
Thanks
Chris Howard
FFA Advisor
Chianina Fan
John Deere Fan
This year at the Ky Beef EXPO they only had 12 animals when i can remember when i was in high school they could have as many as 30 head or more. I think the breed has lost to much ground to ever recover to be very popular anymore. Most folks that show them have them registered in 2 breeds which to means they can sell them 2 ways if needed depending on the sale they would be in.
So many of the bulls today are so low percenatge chis that it is silly to even call them Chianina bulls. How can you take a 1% chi bull and breed him to a cow and call that calf a chianina.
The bulls that i use are bulls that their calves will put on weight fast and to sell for top price at the local stockyards. I am now using Fullblood Chianina bulls to increase the size of my cows and to sell heavier steers in the Fall.
I dont know in my opinion if the breed can ever make the comeback to the main stream. Most of the bulls being used are from just a handfull of blooldlines and not going out there for the Fullblood buls to help change the breed.
Thanks
Chris Howard
FFA Advisor
Chianina Fan
John Deere Fan
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
choward2955jd - very well put.
novatech
Well-known member
Is it the show people or the judges not selecting for traits that make good breeding stock? It seems to me that show people will only raise what the judges want. So by the judges not doing their job properly they, not the breeders, have in fact ruined the bred, at least in part. Just my opinion.choward2955jd":vtzj6jhi said:
choward2955jd
Well-known member
Well i think the folks selling the show cattle and the judges are to blame. Somewhere people have decided that some traits are better than others. The cattle being shown in the Chiangus breed today are just to small. If you go back 50 years and look at some of the old cattle pictures you can see what i am talking about. It just seems odd to see a chiangus cow or bull or calf out of a bull that is 1% chia. It is no more chi than I am a airplane piolt. I can tell over the past few years the colo is coming back in the show bulls used for A.I. I think seeing the various color bulls is good for the industry. It gets boring looking at sale cattle that are all the same solor. I was at the expo last year and you could walk from the Angusto the Chiangus, Simmentaland I could not tell them apart.I think the problem are with the folks not remembering what brought this great breed to United States. Size, Size Sizenovatech":25jykh1z said:
Thanks,
Chris Howard
FFA Advisor
John Deere Fan
Chianina Fan
