William and David Moir

Breed Society Focus | Charolais
The Modern Charolais
Britain’s Leading High
Performance Breed
Since its introduction from Europe in the late 1950s, the Charolais
breed has established itself as one of the most important breeds in the
development of the UK’s beef industry. Founded in 1962, the British
Charolais Cattle Society (BCCS) has worked tirelessly to ensure that ‘no bull
works harder for the farmer, the plate and the planet’, and the breed today
regularly tops sale prices and AHDB rankings to prove it.
Charolais bulls have come to dominate the British
beef breeders’ choice of commercial terminal
sire, producing unrivalled growth rates,
outstanding carcass quality, and exceptional
killing out percentages. And, the breed has also
proved to be outstandingly versatile. “The progress we
have made in terms of calving ease over recent years,
alongside exceptional growth and carcass qualities
make the modern Charolais a terminal sire to suit any
system” said Andrew Sellick, Chairman of BCCS.
Charolais-sired suckler calves perform equally well sold
as weanlings, commanding top prices and regularly
topping markets up and down the country; they can be
housed through winter and finished off-farm at 12-15
months on forage and grain-based diets, or they can be
brought through the winter on a maintenance diet and
finished off with grass the following summer.
A 22% increase in bull sales across all markets over
the past two years and a surge in record-breaking
averages is partly because of breeder’s commitment to
improvement of the breed and partly of the old saying
that the ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’.
In the AHDB National Beef Evaluations for August this
year, measured against the leading beef breeds British
Blonde, British Blue, Limousin, Salers, and Simmental,
the Charolais ranked outright first in two of the five key
performance indicators, Average Daily Carcase Gain and
Carcase Weight, and equal first in Days to Slaughter.
This resurgent dominance of the Charolais is partly
because of the breed’s consistent performance in new
and increasingly sophisticated evaluations like the
AHDB rankings, introduced in 2018, and partly due to
its proven commercial performance on farm and in the
market. But much of the Charolais popularity is also due
to the passionate commitment of the British Charolais
Cattle Society and its members to keep their muchloved
breed moving forward.
Today’s Charolais is becoming a favourite with UK
commercial beef breeders and one such farming
family who recognise the unbeatable capacity of this,
high-performance breed to add value to their crossbred
calves and improve quality and efficiency of their
suckler herd is William and David Moir who farm with
their parents at Home Farm, Cairness near Fraserburgh.
Running a herd of 200 Limousin cross cows, last
year they made the decision to put a 100 of their big
black square cows to the Charolais Bull. The aim of
transferring some of the herd to the Charolais was to
try to get as heavy as possible calves at young saleable
weights.
Bulls were purchased at Stirling and the results are
impressive as William explains:
“We have some tremendous heavy
calves, including some potential
shows calves and we are definitely
on track to sell at 11 months.
The calves will be weaned mid-
October aged between six and
seven months, housed and fed
on a growing ration of silage and
cereals, and ready to sell in the
middle of March. This is important
to us as in doing so it fits in well to
our overall farming system.”
38 The National Beef Association Magazine | AUTUMN 2023

Charolais | Breed Society Focus
The BCCS has been forward thinking
with parentage testing and since
switching to testing using SNP
technology in 2017 all animals going
to sales are at least sire verified and
myostatin tested, with a large percentage
going to sale now Fully Sire and Dam
verified. Since bringing in the programme
of testing all females and all sires on
registration of first calf, the Society has
collected enough DNA profiles to launch
single step analysis in the near future,
which should increase the accuracy on
EBVs for bulls which have not yet sired
any progeny.
In concluding Andrew Sellick, believes
the Society continues to fulfil its 75-yearold
vision. “Charolais buyers today can
buy with confidence in pedigree and
performance, and every buyer can find a
bull that suits their farming method and
system.
At a time when input costs are spiralling,
margins are being squeezed and
farm payments are being reduced,
commercial breeders can take every
possible reassurance that the Charolais
will help give them a significantly greater
return on their investment, and a brighter
prospect of a sustainable future for their
farm, their family, and the British beef
industry.
AUTUMN 2023 | The National Beef Association Magazine 39