Steve and his family run 840 head of cattle on about 2,500 acres. Of these, about 300 are mature Charolais and “the rest are just commercial cattle that we use Charolais bulls on,” he said. Steve went on to say, “The majority of our commercial herd is black. We actually have about 80 registered Angus cows left out of the herd that we bought out when we bought the farm. We feed some purebred blacks. We feed some black and red Angus cross. We feed some black Angus/Charolais cross, and we feed some purebred Charolais.”
A Charolais History
The Peterson family has had purebred Charolais since 1971. “We started out using the bulls on our black cows just to get some growth out of our calves. We hauled a lot of corn in and fed steers at that time. There was a need for them to be a little bigger instead of fattening up so fast.” Their first Charolais were purchased from the Litton and Bayview herds, as well as the Wesson herd, because they were all here in Missouri. Steve said his family started purchasing Charolais females of their own because his oldest son got interested in showing. "In 1989 we bought three Charolais cows with heifer calves on them. Over the next ten years, we probably ended up with 120 or 130 of them that we had raised or purchased. I’ve always been interested in the way the Charolais cattle grow.”
Steve related that the Charolais breed originated in France. He thinks that the continental breed probably started at the King Ranch in Texas and has a fascinating history.
“I’ve talked to some of the old-timers who were actually in on getting cattle in here,” Steve said. “The semen was available, but I think some of the first bulls were probably smuggled in here because they weren’t allowed to bring a purebred animal into the country. The United States wouldn’t allow it.” He went on to say that “The full French cattle that come in here are a different body type than domestic Charolais. We have bred more smoothness in them. The full French cattle are still kind of coarse and big-boned. We’ve refined them and worked on a lot of the calving problems that we had early on. We have them to where they’re just a pretty easy-calving type of animal.”
Making Costs Worthwhile
Steve explained how Peterson Farms Charolais is trying to offset the high cost of feed by raising and feeding corn silage. “Last year we planted about 100 acres of corn for silage. That’s what we’re feeding,” Steve said. “We can’t afford to put grain in them right now. We’re fortunate we had the corn silage and we’re topping it with protein and fat. The cattle are looking good. With our quality hay around here, you have to feed them to get them looking the way you want them. They look like they’ve been fed, but it’s been a little bit better priced with the silage. We figure we have $56/ton at the most in our silage by the time we get it in the bunks. It goes a long ways as far as offsetting the cost of grain. We average feeding them 40 to 50 lbs. of silage a day per cow. We just keep grass hay out there basically for if they’re still hungry. They eat about a third of the hay they would if that’s all they got.” Feeding corn silage is not appropriate for younger animals, however, as they cannot digest it properly.
Carrying on the Genetics
Artificial insemination is another integral part of the Petersons’ Charolais operation. “We probably AI close to 50 percent of our heifers and cows, then go right back to an actual service bull,” Steve said. “We don’t waste a lot of time with AI. We still AI a lot to PF Impressed, who is deceased. We also use our own past herd sires to AI. We do some AI that’s as good as having an outcrossed bull. We have something to compare it to, to see if ours grows as well.”
Steve went on to explain further reasoning behind the use of AI. “We try to buy at least one outcross bull every year, if we can find what we’re looking for, if we can find something that will move our breeding program forward. A lot of times we’ll do that through the AI program just to see what works best with our cows. Most of our cows in one way or other all go back to PF Impressed. In order to break that genetic chain, you have to get an outcross in there. You can only line breed so long and we’ve done a lot of that. It has worked, but it only works so long. You’ve got to keep some new genetics flowing through your program or you get into trouble eventually.”
Utilizing Carcass Data
“We feed a lot of calves to get carcass data,” Steve said. “We like to test our bulls that we raise to see how they should work out for the commercial guys. They listen to you when you get some pretty good carcass data on what these bulls have done.”
In addition to his farming, Steve is also a commercial building contractor. “I’ve always said you’ve got to have a pretty good job in order to be able to afford to farm,” he explained. “In my lifetime that’s the way it’s been. That’s the reason I stayed in construction. I would love to be able to check the cattle every day; visit with the cattle people; and merchandise cattle, but I have to be here (with the construction business).” He sees parallels between the farm and the business world. “You have to work at farming (1) so you can afford to farm and (2) because you enjoy farming. You have to work at any business to be successful,” he said.
