Cattle producers will get a chance to pick up tried and true Charolais genetics Nov. 5 when Agriculture Canada’s research centre in One-Four, Alta., sells its herd.
More than 100 purebred cows and heifers raised at the ranch in southeastern Alberta will be on sale in Lethbridge.
The cows have been on the ranch since 1997, where they were used in feed efficiency and range management studies.
The research centre has changed its focus and has already moved the other half of the herd, along with a part of its Black Angus group, to the University of Alberta’s Kinsella research farm for genomics studies. The Angus cows were part of a closed herd that goes back about 35 years.
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“We’re going to get out of the purebreds and replace them with a commercial herd,” said ranch manager Ian Walker.
“It fits our research needs better at this time.”
The new focus will be on a British based herd that includes the remaining Angus cows because they seem better suited to the harsh conditions of the centre’s 42,000 acres of short grass prairie.
Both herds were selected for hardiness in this environment of extreme heat, drought and cold. They must calve unassisted starting at the beginning of April and employees were careful to balance the cows’ milk production.
“You can make a lot more milk than you need and you make cows self destruct if you breed too much milk into them,” Walker said. “The ones we kept were really good mothers and I’m pretty impressed with them.”
Progeny were shipped to Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre feedlot for finishing, feed efficiency and further carcass evaluation studies.
At one time the station maintained a herd of composite cows that included continental, Highland, Hereford, Shorthorn and Angus.
The composite herd was replaced with a purebred Charolais herd in 1997 to work alongside the Angus herd.
Located in southeastern Alberta, the centre has gathered about 80 years worth of field information.
