REGINA – It’s time for cattle producers to start using white bulls again, says the president of the Canadian Charolais Association.
“It is time to own more cows and it is time for new breeders,” said Cameron Sparrow, adding that the commercial beef industry needs more Charolais-sired calves to improve rates of gain because packers are looking for higher yielding carcasses.
“People have to realize pounds pay.”
Ten lots averaged $4,560 at the Canadian Western Agribition Charolais sale last week.
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Order buyers tell him there are not enough tan calves at the auctions because so many people have either left the business or switched to Angus. The result is falling registrations for the Charolais association, a trend Sparrow wants to see reversed.
At one time Charolais was one of the more popular breeds at Agribition and the shows were day-long events.
“We had a pile of good years where Charolais was the breed to be in,” he said.
Along with his two brothers, he and his wife, Kerrie, have taken over most of the family farm at the mixed operation of grain, hay and cattle at Vanscoy, Sask.
Sparrow sees breed associations restructuring as part of a natural ebb and flow where one purebred group is popular for a time, only to be unseated by another.
To rebuild the breed’s profile, three new field representatives have been hired to work with commercial producers, attend auction sales and meet with cattle feeding groups. Renewed interest from commercial producers is what the breed needs to regain its past position as a strong breed, providing terminal sires to the beef business,” Sparrow said.
“In the long run the hard core breeders will survive and will get paid for it,” he said. “The demand is there for the bulls.”
His father, Alan, got his first Charolais bull in 1965. It was purchased sight unseen from France and when it was bred to the cows on the Sparrow place, weight gains noticeably improved.
“He had a variety of cows and tried a Charolais bull and they performed well so he got interested,” said Sparrow.
