Charolais Genetics

Davis Rairdan has Charolais embryos for sale from some of the most prominent Canadian Charolais breeders, and from some of the most distinguished bloodlines of Charolais cattle. A variety is available for embryo transplant at any given time.

Canadian Charolais Breeders

With the lightening of the import restrictions in Canada in the mid-1960's full-blood Charolais were again imported from France. This allowed for the importation of new bloodlines from France. This meant new genetic material for tightly-bred Charolais pedigrees of the time. Several breeding herds were established in Canada, as well as the island of Eleuthera, in the Bahamas. Japan, England and Ireland also imported purebred Charolais directly from France. Offspring from these herds were later imported to the United States.

American Charolais Breeders

American Charolais are referred to as "purebred" or "recorded" depending upon the percentage of known Charolais blood. The term purebred is used on those that carry 31/32 or more Charolais blood and those less than 31/32 can be referred to as recorded. People wishing to develop a herd will still find it possible to upgrade, using purebred Charolais sires, a foundation cow herd of one of the other cattle breeds or their crosses. Five generations of purebred bulls are required to produced the 31/32 level for classification as "purebred". Sires used in the grading-up process must be registered. The offspring from the first as well as succeeding generations must be registered as "recorded" until they reach the 31/32 level at which time they are referred to as purebred.

Breed History

The Charolais originated in west-central to southeastern France, in the old French provinces of Charolles and neighboring Nievre. The exact origins of the Charolais are lost to us but it must have been developed from cattle found in the area. Legend has it that white cattle were first noticed in the region as early as 878 A.D., and by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were well and favorably known in French markets, especially at Lyon and Villefranche. Selection developed a white breed of cattle which, like other cattle of continental Europe, were used for draft, milk and meat.

Soon after the first World War, a young Mexican industrialist of French name and ancestry, Jean Pugibet, brought some of the French cattle to his ranch in Mexico. Until the mid-1960s, all the Charolais in Mexico, the United States and Canada were descendants of this initial Pugibet herd. Due to the limited number of original animals and the import restrictions which were in place, they have been crossed on other cattle in an upgrading process. Because of the use of the upgrading process few of the Charolais cattle currently found in the United States are of pure French breeding.