Content
The French breed of beef cattle was bred in the Charolais region, which is part of modern Burgundy. According to the place of origin, the cattle were called “Charolais”. It is not known for certain where the white cattle came from in those places. Mentions of white bulls have been found since the 9th century. At that time, Charolais were used exclusively as draft animals. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Charolais cattle were already recognized in French markets. At that time, Charolais was used for meat and milk, and also as draft animals. As a result of such universal selection in several directions, large animals were produced from Charolais.
Initially, Charolais were bred only in their “native” region, but after the French Revolution, farmer and cattle breeder Claude Mathieu moved from Charolais to Nièvres, taking with him a herd of white cattle. In the department of Nièvres, the cattle became so popular that they almost changed their name from Charolais to Nievmas.
In the mid-19th century, there were two large herds belonging to different livestock organizations. In 1919, these organizations merged into one, creating a single stud book.
Since the task was not only to obtain meat and milk, but also to use bulls in the yoke, the largest animals were selected for the tribe.French beef cattle are generally larger than English ones of the same breed. After the start of industrialization, the need for bulls as draft animals disappeared. The breed was reoriented to the production of meat and milk. To accelerate weight gain, Charolais cattle were crossed with English Shorthorns.
Description of the Charolais breed
The height of a Charolais cow is 155 cm. Bulls can grow up to 165 cm. Oblique length for bulls is 220 cm and for cows 195 cm. The chest circumference of a bull is 200 cm.
The head is relatively small, short, with a wide forehead, flat or slightly concave, a straight bridge of the nose, a narrow and short facial part, round, white, elongated horns, thin middle ears with small hairs, large and prominent eyes, wide cheeks with strong muscles.
The neck is short and thick, with a pronounced crest. The withers stand out well. The main thing is not to confuse it with a highly developed muscle in the neck. The chest is wide and deep. The dewlap is well developed. The back and loins are long and level. The croup is long and straight. The bull's tail is slightly raised. The legs are short, widely set, and very powerful.
Charolais cows are more graceful and resemble dairy breeds livestock Most likely, this build is a reminder of the versatility of the breed in the past. The raised sacrum stands out from the “milky” exterior. The udder of Charolais cows is small, regular in shape, with well-developed lobes.
The presence of horns can create serious problems in the herd when sorting out relationships. In addition, horns often grow incorrectly, threatening to stick into the eye or skull bone.
The “classic” Charolais color is creamy white. But today Charolais with red and black colors have already appeared, since the Charolais breed is often crossed with Aberdeen Angus and Herefords.
Productive characteristics of the breed
The weight of adult cows is 900 kg, bulls 1100, slaughter yield up to 65%. Calves are born very large, on average 50 kg. Cattle gain weight quickly.
Charolais cattle are capable of gaining weight even just on pasture grass. But the animals have an excellent appetite and, when fattened on grass, require significant pasture areas. In the absence of fat, the meat of Charolais cattle remains tender and has high taste.
Productivity of Charolais cattle of different ages
| Animal type | Age at slaughter, months | Live weight, kg | Slaughter yield, kg |
| bulls | 15 – 18 | 700 | 420 |
| Heifers | 24 – 36 | more than 600 | more than 350 |
| Full-aged cows | over 36 | 720 | 430 |
| bulls | over 30 | 700 – 770 | 420 – 460 |
French farms receive their main income from the supply of calves aged 8 to 12 months to Italian and Spanish industrialists.
The milk characteristics of Charolais cows are clearly exaggerated. Sometimes you can find data that Charolais cows produce 4 thousand kg of milk per year. But this figure is not always achievable even in meat and dairy breeds. The data indicating the milk yield of cows is 1000 - 1500 kg per year looks more realistic. But even more likely is the fact that no one seriously measured the milk yield of Charolais cows.
Charolais calves must remain with their mother for at least 6 months. At the same time, cows have a very well developed maternal instinct. She will not let anyone near the calf and will not give milk to anyone except her calf. In general, no one cares about the milk productivity of Charolais cows. The main thing is that the calf has enough milk and does not lag behind in development.
Advantages of the Charolais breed
Charolais cattle have many advantages so that they can be bred in all countries with a developed meat industry:
- precocity;
- rapid weight gain on pasture;
- disease resistance;
- strong hooves;
- ability to fatten well both on grass and grain feed;
- ability to adapt to any climate;
- the ability to produce even larger offspring during heterotic crossing;
- the highest slaughter yield of meat from a carcass;
- one of the lowest percentages of fat in meat.
Only the meat of Friesian cattle contains less fat.
Disadvantages of the Charolais breed
Along with the unconditional advantages for which Charolais cattle are valued in the world, they also have serious disadvantages:
- Charolais bulls are very aggressive. Although cows are inferior to them in the level of viciousness, it is not by much, especially if the cow has a calf;
- difficult calvings. Due to the large weight of the calf, deaths in cows are not uncommon;
- a hereditary disease that causes heart failure in newborn calves;
- Charolais bulls cannot be used on smaller breeds of cattle due to the large size of newborn calves.
To avoid such problems, as well as to obtain larger animals, crossing Charolais cattle with other breeds is used. Herefords are especially popular in this regard, since their calves are born small, later catching up in size with representatives of other meat breeds. In addition to Herefords and Aberdeen Angus, Charolais are crossed with a breed of cattle developed in the USA: Brahmans. Being an American breed, Brahmans have Indian roots and are representatives of the Zebu.
The photo shows a Brahmin bull.
The crossing of Brahmins with Charolais was so active that a new breed of cattle has already been registered in Australia: thyme.
To be included in the Stud Book, a representative of this breed must have 75% Charolais blood and 25% Brahman blood.
In the photo there is a bull of thyme. The thyme breed has not yet been consolidated by type. It contains animals of both the lighter zeb-like type and the heavier ones, more like Charolais.
15 years ago, Charolais appeared in Russia.
And in Ukraine
Reviews from Charolais owners
It is too early to talk about the opinions of Charolais owners in Russia or Ukraine. In the CIS, the Charolais is still a very exotic breed. But foreigners already have an opinion.
Conclusion
Charolais can become an excellent source of beef in Russia if cattle breeding staff changes their attitude towards this breed. In all Russian videos, Charolais are almost impossible to distinguish from dairy cattle due to protruding bones. Or they are confused with dairy breeds. Or they don’t take into account that the phrase “well fattened on pasture” means the presence of tall grass under Charolais feet, and not trampled earth with rare patches of almost dead plants. In any case, private individuals will not be able to get a Charolais for a long time due to the high cost of the breed and the very small “Russian” livestock.
