When Manitoba farmer Harry Airey first entered the cattle business, he budgeted $1,000 to buy a bull from the Douglas Bull Test
Station.
He got a bargain by spending $750 on a young Charolais bull.
The following year, that bull’s calves earned Airey twice as much money as he expected. Smitten, he decided to go all the way with Charolais.
“I figured one Charolais is good, more would be better,” Airey said.
Twenty-five years later, his family runs about 150 purebred cows at Rivers, Man.
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Airey, who is chair of the Canadian Charolais Association’s breed improvement committee, said he never anticipated the progress these cattle and their breeders would make in 30 years.
Innovative Charolais breeders insisted the big, white beasts from France could rebuild the Canadian cattle industry. The breeders also managed to computerize the business.
The breed association has kept records for 30 years on birth weights, yearling weights, long-term performance and progeny.
It is also accumulating carcass data by measuring grade and yields and assessing live cattle using ultrasound. Some information is tied in with an Agriculture Canada research project that maintains about 200 Charolais cows for meat quality studies.
Record keeping is important. Cattle producers know there is a lot of variation within a breed and Charolais breeders want to target the outstanding individuals in their herds.
“We want to identify the genetics that are within a breed,” Airey said.
Sharing this information with commercial producers is a challenge.
The commercial producer is most interested in pounds of gain because he is not necessarily paid for quality. Airey believes beef quality must become a priority.
Technology developed in the last two decades is making it easier to guarantee quality.
Charolais are known as high gaining, lean meat producers. The bulls cross well with maternal types like Angus or Hereford and are popular as terminal sires of calves going to slaughter.
Commercial and purebred producers can use information like expected progeny differences to select the best beef-producing bulls. More bull buyers are demanding the paperwork.
Airey compares buying a good bull to selecting a new tractor.
“When a farmer buys a new tractor, he wants to know everything about it. The serious commercial operator wants to know what the horsepower is of the bull,” Airey said.
That information is available through the Charolais Herd Analysis and Records Management, called CHARM.
It’s a system of records that can be used to select and cull animals with solid genetic information.
Administered by the association, enrolment in CHARM allows a producer to have performance data from his herd included in the North American EPD genetic evaluation and Canadian association sire summary.
EPDs provide a genetic description of a sire by compiling information on birth weight, weaning weight, milk, total maternal, yearling weight and carcass traits. They are used to compare the predicted progeny performance between two bulls within a breed, regardless of age or herd location.
The Canadian Charolais EPDs are computed through the University of Georgia.
The association also ran the conception to consumer progeny test program. Designed in 1968 to evaluate a sire on the basis of the performance of its progeny, a sire is evaluated against its contemporaries.
Careful design of the program ensures the accuracy of data and involves the co-operation of purebred and commercial operators in diverse management conditions.
In addition, a new era of co-operation exists among purebred organizations to enhance quality beef production.
The Charolais association is part of a four-breed alliance with the Hereford, Limousin and Simmental associations. At one time, that kind of co-operation was considered impossible.
Power in numbers
But breeders have realized that to sell more beef, they must work together while maintaining their uniqueness.
Originally from France, it is believed the Charolais line dates back to Roman times, when white cattle were introduced to France and England.
South Americans and Mexicans started importing blocky, white cattle in 1930.
By the mid 1950s, some Charolais appeared in Canadian crossbreeding programs. Expansion was nearly impossible because import regulations did not allow anyone to bring bulls or semen to Canada.
With the intercession of politicians like former federal agriculture minister Harry Hays, the import doors began to open.
In 1965, a group of Canadians traveled to France and bought 110 bulls and females to start a purebred herd. The Charolais association was established in 1960.
Today, the Canadian Charolais Association boasts nearly 2,000 members and about 32,000 registrations, the majority in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
