Charolais... Who has them? Are they good for a newbe?

[Duramaxgirl]

Hello everyone! I'm new to cows but we are planning on getting some very soon. I'm so glad to be here!! Here's what I have; 5 acres, a pole barn that we are adding a 8x24 3 sided lean to on for the cows. My 5 acres has mostly orchard grass and timothy very little weeds. We have about 2 acres or less fenced in but plan on doing eclectic fencing on the rest soon. I also have a father that used to have 400+ head of cows when he was young. He has lots of experience.
Soooo I have no cattle experience at all. I have 4 kids aged 7,6,4 and 3. We want beef cows for meat and one heifer for breeding/pet. For a total of 3 cows. I want a kid friendly cow if possible. My dad said his tamest cows where charolais. But I'm reading that charolais are kinda skidish... We are planning to get young or even bottle fed calves.

So who has charolais and what do you like/dislike about them?
Thanks an sorry for the long post

 

[goodhors]

You may want to buy a very young heifer, then work with her to tame and keep her well behaved. Especially if you plan to keep her long-term. Smaller, younger, are just easier to work with, get the ideas you want imbedded into cow thinking. Same with your meat steers, so you have no problems later with loading or handling until they get sold. Might need to catch them if fence gets damaged or fails in a storm. MUCH easier if they come when called for grain.

I got a yearling heifer in Jan., not charlois, but she still is kind of independent though handled daily. Almost 9 months on her now, still can be resistant at times. She is quite good on many things, getting haltered, stalled at night, loads in the trailer, ties very well. Spooks if things get changed even a LITTLE BIT! So younger is better. Not recommending a bottle baby, they can be hard to get going if you inexperienced. Just as young as possible so you can get good basics on them early.

Remember that within each breed the animals will differ. Breeds can have a good reputation, but sometimes one animal is just not a nice one. You can't predict for a whole breed, if nice or nasty will be the one you get. Handling a lot makes a difference in nice, and by this I mean something done DAILY. Not weekly or monthly, now and again, even though it is easier to just leave cattle to "do their grazing thing" out in the field. Even just haltering, tied up, get some grain from you every day.

My friend had a Charlois, was the nastiest heifer she ever had. Well bred, well built, friend planned to raise calves with her. Heifer was turned out with another heifer, very quiet, likable, mixed breed black animal. They were moderately handled, put in the barn for grain, let out, not really broke to lead though. Cattle were OK with the daily routine. The Charlois got kind of agressive as she got older, chargy if she felt threatened. SCARY trying to walk thru the barnyard to the barn and cow was staring at you, had to carry a stick! That didn't last long, decided heifer needed to fill the freezer! Could not get a rope on her in the barn feeding area. They ended up backing trailer to the big door, friend stood in front of trailer and yelled at the Charlois. Heifer got so angry about being stared at and yelling, that she ended up charging friend in the trailer (even though it meant jumping up inside!). They slammed the door behind, while friend jumped out the small side door to escape. Funny how that black heifer NEVER acted like that, came when called, with the same handling. Bad heifer did TASTE great, excellent meat on pasture diet, little bit of grain.

Haven't like Charlois since, though I have met a number of MUCH nicer acting ones since then. I think that heifer had a brain problem, good thing she never got bred!

I have found a many of the mixed breed cattle to be nice for family handling. See a lot in 4-H project steers. Color can be an issue, light color udder can be burned on snowy ground, making calf have nursing problems if you have early winter calving. Light color face skin can sunburn too. Black or dark gets hot easily in warm areas, have to be cooled for steady weight gains or shaded outside. So look around, lots of choices. I have found straight Angus a bit flighty, tempermental in stress situation where they will fight with you. Herefords are slower growing, but usually easy going for me. Many newer breeds, all have great press releases about temperment!

 

[Duramaxgirl]

thank you! Good stuff! I havent totally decided on what breed I want. I'm just doing research right now. But I thought the Charolais is a good looking cow. I was reading about Hereford being a good gentle cow... My dad said his most onery bull was a hereford named John JR. He has so many storys about his child hood with cattle.

I live on a open field with 3 trees! and the ants might get one of those trees this year...grrr
so shade is not too plentiful here.
So its good to know about the sunburning. My husband builds pole barns for a living so we can build loafing sheds maybe for more shade.

 

[jhm47]

I have quite a lot of experience with a lot of breeds of cattle. I work with a lot of them in my job of artificial insemination. In my experience, there are several breeds that should definitely be ruled out. They are: Chianina and Salers and their crosses. Charolais very narrowly missed being on that nasty list.

That being said, all breeds have well-mannered cattle, and also mean tempered cattle. We happen to have Simmental/Angus crosses. We have been using more Angus lately in order to lower the frame score of our cows. I have definitely noticed that the temperament of the Angus sired calves is somewhat worse than the Simmental sired calves. We have a very few purebred Angus cows, and one of them is extremely nasty after she calves. She is fine when her calf is a month or so old, but right after she calves---WATCH OUT! She had a nice set of twins this spring, and I routinely confine twinners in order to make sure that the cow is accepting both, and not just one. She made our lives quite exciting when we went in to feed her.

I would suggest that you plan on Simmental or Hereford. Be aware that there are also poor dispositions in these breeds too, but in my experience they are your best bet. Be sure to get polled ones, or else plan on dehorning NO MATTER WHAT! Oh---Good luck!

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Even though I am a little late here, I have four words for you: DON'T GET A CHAROLAIS. Chars are very skiddish, and are worse for those, like you, who have very little experience with cattle. I've been around Charolais steers and I could never get a pet out of them. Only occaisonally will I get a pet out of one, but that was because he was crossbred with Simmental or Hereford.

The only reason your dad had nice calm Charolais on his place was because he was very strict on temperament: he culled out all those cows and heifers that were skiddish, nervous or down-right nasty. You don't have the time to look for calves, let alone a couple young heifers, that will have that same kind of temperament your dad raised. I doubt if you will even come across any farm or ranch that raises the kind of chars that he raised.

I would also stay away from Angus, as I have never had any luck with them getting to be tame, even from a weaning stage, except those that were crossbred with Hereford or Simmental. Red Angus were a little better temperamental than Angus, though they can be a pain as well.

I would suggest, to raise for meat, is to get black or red baldies; most of those are Angus-Hereford cross or Red Angus-Hereford crosses, and a lot of them have a good temperament. As for a breeding heifer, I'd go for Hereford. Try to stay away from those herfs that have horns; the polled ones are better, since you don't have to have those horns to get docked. And you will find there are more tamer, more docile Herefords around than Charolais, even though they are a bit slower growing and don't "look [as] good" as them muscly chars.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

Thanks for the reply... I'll look more into herefords then. I'm also working with a small budget... Quick question: how long can you keep a cow? What is they're life expectancy?

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Thanks for the reply... I'll look more into herefords then. I'm also working with a small budget... Quick question: how long can you keep a cow? What is they're life expectancy?

A cow can last anywhere between 5 and 25 years, depending on her health, conformation, teeth, etc. I heard the oldest cow on record lived to over 30 years.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

Even though I am a little late here, I have four words for you: DON'T GET A CHAROLAIS. Chars are very skiddish, and are worse for those, like you, who have very little experience with cattle. I've been around Charolais steers and I could never get a pet out of them. Only occaisonally will I get a pet out of one, but that was because he was crossbred with Simmental or Hereford.

The only reason your dad had nice calm Charolais on his place was because he was very strict on temperament: he culled out all those cows and heifers that were skiddish, nervous or down-right nasty. You don't have the time to look for calves, let alone a couple young heifers, that will have that same kind of temperament your dad raised. I doubt if you will even come across any farm or ranch that raises the kind of chars that he raised.

I would also stay away from Angus, as I have never had any luck with them getting to be tame, even from a weaning stage, except those that were crossbred with Hereford or Simmental. Red Angus were a little better temperamental than Angus, though they can be a pain as well.

I would suggest, to raise for meat, is to get black or red baldies; most of those are Angus-Hereford cross or Red Angus-Hereford crosses, and a lot of them have a good temperament. As for a breeding heifer, I'd go for Hereford. Try to stay away from those herfs that have horns; the polled ones are better, since you don't have to have those horns to get docked. And you will find there are more tamer, more docile Herefords around than Charolais, even though they are a bit slower growing and don't "look [as] good" as them muscly chars.

Wow thanks... 1 more vote for hereford then!

 

[Royd Wood]

Good luck with your plans and check out Galloway cattle before you decide, We are so pleased with ours and our daughters are halter training the calves for the 4H beef program.
Very good to handle they are the most sociable cattle I have ever worked with, easy calving and great mothers with plenty of milk for the calf. No horns to worry about. They deal with very hot summers and very cold winters extreamly well and thrive on pasture / hay with no grain expenses.
We have some black, dun and belted so the fields look colourful and they guard our sheep from the Coyotes.

 

[herfrds]

We raise commercial Herefords. The nasty tempered ones hit the road. Have a bull that scared me and is leaving our place permantly. there have been some ill tempered cows too.
right now we have a 13 year old cow that is not getting back into good condition so we are selling her. Cousin had a cow that was 23 when he finally sold her.
We had a cow years ago we hated to sell but she just would not stay in our pastures. We would get a call that a cow was out. Go out to look and sure enough she was out again. Would drop the fence and yell for her, her name was Pet and she answered to it. Would cross the dropped wire and stop so you could scratch her. If only she stayed home.

There was a discussion concerning this very same thing on a cattle forum I belong to and it was another person just starting up. Everybody agreed to start with the Herefords. even the Angus breeders agreed.