First Calf Charolais Heifer

[brandtmolyneux]

What are some good options to breed a first calf PB Charolais heifer to?

 

[RankeCattleCo]

What are your goals? Looking to stay PB?

 

[brandtmolyneux]

No. I would like a good club calf bull.

 

[RankeCattleCo]

There aren't any club calf bulls that are consistently safe on a first calf heifer so I would suggest an Ali son/grandson, either I-80, No Worries, or Mercedes Benz (in that order)

 

[Idahoboy]

I would breed her to WR Wrangler to get a good first calf out of her with no worries during calving time at all. I don't know a lot about many of the show bulls, but I do know that there are very few that I would breed a heifer to. If she is larger framed, as a lot of charolais are, you could probably get away with using a show bull, but Wrangler will always be a good option if you can afford to have a purebred calf out of her for the first year.

 

[Freddy]

MY experience is that JESSE JAMES worked on Charolais X heifers ,calves don't get super big later on or grow real fast but have a unbeatable profile that I have had ...    .....LT LEDGER 0332 is the CHAROLAIS bull that I  USED on heifers and cow's and will have more thickness and growth, homozygous polled and is  the Charolais bull of the future ....

 

[HAB]

Moto Moto will give you a thick, hairy, stout made soggy heifer calf or bull calf.  He has been working well on heifers.

 

[brandtmolyneux]

I think my breeder and I were leaning towards breeding her to I-80. What are everyones thoughts on this?

 

[brandtmolyneux]

Here's a picture if that helps.

 

[Bradenh]

"Heifer safe" and "clubby" are not words to be used in the same breath. You run the risk with any bull that's clubby because they rarely have numbers to substantiate their calving ease and if they do they are often falsified. The term clubby means they have no consistency in their genetics it's a hoge poge of different ingredients to make a freak show with hair- that's not ideally the recipe for success on a heifer if you think a lot of her.

We calved the cow in my picture to wrangler unassisted (I wasn't home) and 67 lbs after she was on feed all but the last 30 days- heavy feed showing as a bred at the texas majors and the tinkle family (jr national champion) actually purchased that calf from me as a show heifer to be at the majors this year. I like wrangler for a safe bet- clubby just isn't a safe bet and i80 damn sure won't add any guts and I haven't seen him work on colored cows very well at all- but there is always an exeption

 

[dimebag]

I would say use a good Angus bull and save yourself a lot of worries . A friend of mine used Duff Hobart last fall and got some very nice looking calves with no issues . You have to remember that heifer is 1/2 of the equation !

 

[Mark H]

What is this heifers EPDs like?  Actual birthweight?  What is her breeding?  WR wangkler is a good bull but he combines tow of the better heifer bulls uded in the past 20 years Baldrige fasttrack and Oakdale Duke  I don't want to get into a line breeding situation here.  In any event other bulls like LT Ledger amd Big Ben are around that are as easy calving or more so.  All of them will give you a good calf.

 

[brandtmolyneux]

Let me rephrase what I said earlier, I do not necessarily want a clubby bull. I would like a bull that will help her produce good show cattle. Preferably not a PB Charolais bull, but open to suggestions.

 

[Bulldaddy]

I've had a I80 out of a PB Charalois and it was nothing special.  Kind of plain and leggy.  I would do as DBL J1 suggests and breed her to a good Angus bull for that first calf.  Then Monopoly or MAB the second time around if you want clubby.

 

[Davidsonranch]

Live calf, Live calf, Live calf.
I'm going to say heifer safe red angus.  I am intrigued by the functionality of the red angus / char crosses. 
Hoping Tyler from Mill Iron A livestock pipes in.  He has a tremendous group of Char / Red angus cows that are making great steer mamas. 

 

[Mark H]

Iowa,

The bulls that Show Stpper and I have mentioned are your best bet to get a good marketable calf you can show and easily get semen.  All of them are backed up by strong breeding programs and have calves that have won shows.  The questions I asked are to narrow the choices down to make sure you get the ptimal solution.  If possible WR Wrangler is the best soltion because Thomas has shown the calves successfully,  this birth weight EPD is falling, and his calves grow.
If you want a grade calf then use a calving ease red angus bull.  That is default answer foir char cross heifers in Alberta.

 

[librarian]

I was looking over the fence one day with a farmer/cattleman who is pushing eighty. We were looking at his pure bred Charolais. His daughters were intent upon breeding Smokey show calves. This man doesn't say much, and what little he does say kind of has to sink in for awhile before I learn what he was talking about.
We were looking at the cows, and he said, "they ( the daughters) keep trying to put Angus bulls on the Charolais cows. It's never going to work. You have to do it the other way around."

But I'd use Moto Moto.

 

[Freddy]

THIS old man agrees with your old man  ////////