INTERSTATE

[cowz]

Thanks for agreeing with me on the idea of using pure Char on pure maine.  If your goal is a true smoke,  don't forget the power of a real F1 cross.  Also, as the white gene gets diluted, your opportunity to predict color diminishes rapidly.   

Congrats, chambero!  Many Charolais folks were pretty excited when that calf won!!

My only caution for people is that the rat tail condition tends to rear it's ugly head when crossbreeding blacks on Charolais.  Many a rat tail calf has been fed out and in our freezers.  Cant sell them anywhere!   

Have a great day everyone!

Really...you've had true rat tails with the curly messed up hair, out of Charolais?  I thought it was only a Simmental thing.  I agree they are ugly things.

And on the colour, you're right, breeding to pure white Char gives 100% smoky, breeding to a smoky gives only a 50/50 chance.

In our commercial herd it is a "mixed bag", herd of many colors, as described in an earlier post.  Anyhow, it is Charolais bulls on primarily black baldie cows.  We generally have at least one a year.  This year we had one out of our maine cow.  It is the ugliest I have ever seen.  Looks like a large drowned rat.  I will try to go take a picture and get it on here in a few days.

 

[genes]

Oh I have a picture.....but you must promise not to make fun of me....I took it only as a bad example.   We had to keep her back because we weouldn't have done so well at market with her.

About them being poor doers, I think it really depends.  Their hair is deformed and thin (if you look on their back you see skin through) which is certainly not an advantage in cold climates, but maybe irrelevant in warmer areas.  Plus, how bad their hair is really varies between animals, so their tolerance for cold can also vary and such.  We had one that would stand humped up in the corner all winter long, but others that have been fine, or only bad in a blizzard.   It just depends.

But man oh man are they ugly.  Especially when they also have white hair, which is not affected, they have these slicked off faces with chunks of long white hair.

 

[genes]

Ugh Red you can go ahead and resize those (I keep forgetting).  Little too much visual...you can definitely see how messed up her hair is.

 

[red]

Thanks Genes! I can only imagine what one w/ white must look like if they keep the long white hairs.

 

[OH Breeder]

Wow, it's sure not a trend out here. smokeys are hot! Now, I'll admit the Charlosis cows themselves aren't but if you can get a nice smokey calf, then you've got buyers!
It seems that it took a while for them to catch on out here in Ohio. OH B might remember but I think Winegardners started it off several years ago when they're girls would show the smokey calves. Now you'll see a lot of people looking for really good ones.

Red

Brad has had some success with quiet a few smokies. He knows how to pick 'em. I think there was a WMW smokie that won quiet a bit for the Vegas girl.

 

[knabe]

i have a friend with a little dog coated somewhat like this, but with the longer hair, and his name is hoghair.