Charolais bulls can do a lot for commercial breeders to add more pounds and more profit to their calves. Loyd Sherburn and Jim Davis work together to market home ranch cattle in Nevada on Superior. The home ranch buys Charolais bulls from the DeBruycker family. Loyd is a big believer in CharAdvantage, and Jim continues to push his Superior Livestock customers to use CharAdvantage.
Jim Davis has been marketing cattle with Superior Livestock since 1988. “When I first started, the genetics out West were not the best. We looked into trying to improve all the cattle and had people like Lee Leachman come out to meet with ranchers and talk about genetics; we did that for about 12 years. At nearly every little town in the West we had a meeting and bought everyone a steak who came to our meetings. We started going to Leachmans to buy bulls. At the same time, I had some customers who wanted really good Charolais bulls,” Davis says.
“A friend of mine, Monty Bruck and I took about 10 days and traveled around, looking at Charolais bulls. We ended up in Great Falls, MT, looking at the DeBruycker herd, and really liked those cattle. We’ve been buying bulls from that herd now for more than 30 years. For my customers who want Charolais, we buy at least one load of bulls from DeBruckers every year,” he says.
“That family is awesome and their bulls work very well for us out on the desert. I bought another group of bulls this spring at their sale. There are many other good Charolais bulls around the country, but we fell in love with these. The DeBruyckers come to our Winnemucca video sale every year and bid on the calves sired by their bulls. They know those calves will do well in the feedlot,” Davis says.
“We always have their calves on Superior Sunrise because we want to promote the Charolais breed. I try to get all my customers involved in the Charolais Advantage, and we are hoping the Charolais Association will become involved in promoting these cattle. They need to go out and talk to feedlots, get them on an email list and let them know what cattle are selling and where—and get more buyer interest in these Charolais and Charolais-cross cattle,” he says.
These are great cattle, and they make a great cross. “The black Angus took the top of the market the past two years, but in the sale this year, the Charolais got within about 2 cents of the top Angus and were really close. And we get the extra pounds with both the straight Charolais and crossbred calves, so those producers get more total dollars for their calves even if the price per pound is 2 or 3 cents lower than for black calves. Dollars per head is what counts,” says Davis.
“We have our Charolais section every Wednesday and at the Winnemucca sale we start with the Charolais section and sell about an hour’s worth of all Charolais calves. We’d like the Charolais Association to help us market these cattle.” This creates more customers for the breeders selling bulls, creating a better market for everyone.
The Charolais Advantage helps producers get more for their calves. It costs a dollar more per head to have them in this program at Superior (and other video sales) which is very reasonable, for the added interest in these cattle and more buyers bidding on them. “It’s all about marketing, and getting top dollar for the value of these cattle.”
Using a Charolais bull on an Angus cow will always add more pounds to the calves. “You will get at least another 20 to 30 pounds, and often more. A rancher can buy a $5,000 Charolais bull and use that bull on a commercial herd and get more pounds to sell. To get that same kind of weight on an all-black calf, you’d have to pay about $15,000 for an Angus bull that will do this.”
You can buy one of the cheaper-end Charolais bulls and get hybrid vigor plus the complementary aspect of two breeds and get a bigger calf, with less investment in the bulls. “You’d need the very top end of the Angus bulls to get that weight,” says Davis. It makes good economic sense for commercial producers to use a cheaper Charolais bull, and get a lot more bang for the buck. Davis has one big customer who has black cows and sells all the female calves and uses just DeBruycker bulls to have good crossbred calves. The buyers love those calves.
“All of our customers run cattle on Bureau of Land Management allotments in Nevada, Idaho and Oregon and this is mainly desert country. The Charolais cattle hold up very well in these conditions, and Charolais bulls hold up better than black bulls. Being white they do better in the heat, as well. They fit our country; they will climb to the top of the mountains and service more cows,” he says.
These bulls last longer and you don’t have to buy as many, and when you are done with those bulls or the crossbred cows and sell them, they weigh more. “The Charolais bull may weigh 200 to 300 pounds more than an Angus bull. With the prices bulls are bringing now—more than $1 per pound—this is quite a bit more money. This is why we like Charolais cattle!” says Davis.
Clint Sexson, a fieldman for the Charolais Journal, works with purebred breeders and commercial ranchers through the Char Advantage and other programs—to try to get them to utilize these programs to add value to their calves. “Often it’s a combination of verification programs that help you get more value, as well as the extra pounds from crossbreeding,” he says.
These calves weigh more, and if a person has added value, it means more dollars. “Most of the producers I work with are using Charolais bulls on English-based cows that are running on mostly short-grass extensive range conditions with minimal management. If a person can get more pounds per acre, this is huge.” Most people can’t afford to buy more land and expand the operation so it’s important to produce more pounds of beef from the acres they have.
“There’s no official study to prove it, but if you were to go head-to-head with any other breed, I believe you get at least 50 extra lbs. with a Charolais bull, and in many situations it might be closer to 75 to 100 extra lbs. The return on your investment is better and you also have a more efficient calf to go into the feedlot,” he says.
“Charolais bulls are aggressive breeders. They go out and cover a lot of cows. Most producers can use them five or six years; they have better longevity than Angus and you don’t need to replace them as often,” says Sexson.
There’s a lot of talk right now in the beef industry about congestive heart failure in feedlot cattle; it has become a serious issue, especially in Angus cattle. “We used to think this was just a high altitude problem, but now it’s a problem at any level. The purebred Charolais definitely have an advantage because they are not susceptible to this condition; they generally test better than most other breeds and can add this advantage to crossbred feeder cattle as well. The smoky or blond calves have less risk.”
Charolais bulls can be used on a wide variety of cows and produce good calves. “Many are used on high-quality cows but there are also a lot of people who buy them to breed cheaper, put-together, common multi-breed cows, to produce better calves. This may be seen more in the South, but there are also examples here in Oregon where Charolais bulls are used on Corriente and Longhorn cows and do a super job of creating a more even calf crop,” he says. This makes those calves easier to market.
“The breeders who sell bulls are often supporting their commercial customers any way they can, and some of them actively buy their customers’ calves.” This makes a ready market for those calves and those producers won’t have to worry about how and where they will sell their calves. That relationship is valuable and the purebred breeders can also see how their bulls stack up against other breeders’ bulls, enabling them to see how the calves do in the feedlot.
Some ranchers also like the Charolais crossbred cows, especially in a desert environment. “They have better longevity and are very hardy. They breed up well, and get out and travel. This is one advantage that we often don’t talk about, but that cow can contribute the same kind of traits as the Charolais bull; those calves have a little more performance and if you follow them through the chain they grow and yield. They have the extra pounds at weaning, and on the rail,” he says.
“People need to market their product to best advantage. Producers can be either just a price-taker or a marketer, and this can definitely affect their bottom line.” — Heather Smith Thomas for AICA
