In April '04 I bought a Charolais cow and calf. The calf was out of a Black Angus bull that carried red factor. The calf was red and about a month old then. About this same time a red Zebu heifer of mine (she looks exactly like pictures I have seen of Indu-Brazilian cows) had a calf out of my Black Angus bull (no red factor). This calf was black. This calf had considerably more ear, hump, dewlap, and sheath than typical Brangus calves. I sold these two calves along withe some other Angus-sired calves (all black) in October. The ZebuX calf sold $5/cwt. higher than the CharX calf. Both calves weighed 535 lb. Both were steers. The other calves I sold that day (all steers in the 5 weight range) went the same as the ZebuX to $3/cwt higher. There were several buyers at the sale, so competitive bidding is what drove these prices. Sure, the CharX calf was penalized for being red, and if he had been black would have sold as high as the other calves. But the ZebuX out grew the CharX and most all the others. By the way these were the first calves for both the Zebu and the Charolais mommas. What all this is about is this: Charolais genetics used in crossbreeding are not way better than Zebu, i.e. Brahman genetics used in crossbreeding. I use both Charolais and Brahman genetics in my herd and I like them both. We have mild winters here, it gets down in the 20's only a few days out of the year. I don't know how the Zebu(Brahman) influence would fare in Idaho, but it would be to your great benefit (I believe) if it could make it in the cold.