Charolais

Cattle, copper and climate are known to be the outstanding assets responsible for Arizona's remarkable growth and development. And all three are tied in to big country, mountains and wide open spaces. Cattle required grazing land with water. In earlier days Arizona had an abundance of both for the limited amount of beef needed in a sparsely settled region. Rich pastures were in bottomlands along the Santa Cruz, San Pedro, Salt and Gila Rivers. In the foothills and high mountain ranges scattered about the state were verdant meadows watered by running streams. With the low-lying desert areas, these were ideal for winter and summer ranges to which cattle could be moved with the seasons. When the Conquistadores came up from Mexico into what is now our great Southwest, they traveled far to the north in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola and their legendary gold. They failed to find the mythical treasure but did open the way for colonizing a promising new land.

The Story Of The CHAROLAIS Great White Cattle In Arizona

It was in Southern Arizona that livestock first was introduced to the friendly Indian tribes along the Santa Cruz River. This was around 300 years ago when Father Kino founded a chain of missions which eventually reached as far north as Tucson. Later, New Mexico and Texas felt the hoofbeats of the ever-increasing cattle herds that roamed across the land.

The Spanish legions depended upon arms and armor to establish footholds while Father Kino brought religion, agriculture and domestic meat production to win the Indians over to the king.

When the first settlers landed on Plymouth Rock they found plenty of wild game. Later, as dairy stock was brought in, the male offspring provided a limited supply of beef. Game was the main source of meat for the pioneers who crossed the Appalachians to settle in the rich valleys beyond, and even more plentiful for the covered-wagon trains that pushed farther west across the great plains. Hidehunters almost wiped out the buffalo herds and drove the survivors from the plains to the protection of the mountains. However, game was available for ranchers and farmers who settled in the meadows, foothills and mountain valleys out east. As cities in the east and midwest grew and multiplied, they needed a stable supply of beef. At the same time, the far-ranging, free-breeding longhorn cattle herds, started by the Spaniards in Texas, multiplied in excess of local needs. While they grew into great herds, the dry rangeland coupled with the original bloodlines of the longhorns was not conducive to producing good beef for the markets. About that time, on a one-thousand mile horizon, the lush green ranges of Montana and Wyoming beckoned to cattlemen who started the historic migrations of whole herds some numbering over five thousand head - from Texas to the far north. There, a summer on green pastures of endless government land put enough meat on the gaunt animals to justify the long trek and made them ready for the profitable markets in Chicago and Kansas City.

Many ranchers who brought cattle from Texas held out enough breeding cows and bulls to start herds in Montana and Wyoming. Although the longhorns put on a good supply of fat during summer grazing, severe winters depleted these foundation herds, pointing up the need for supplemental feeding to maintain them under adverse conditions. With fertile bottomland naturally growing hay, some ranchers added farming to increase these crops. They cut grass and stacked it in open fields to help carry their cattle through the hard winters. This was fine when there was plenty of rain and a good growing season for the grass. The next progressive step was for the rancher to bring water from adjacent streams to his hay meadows to insure a full crop each year. Today many homesteaded mountain ranches still bear the marks of pioneers who, with pick and shovel, dug ditches to bring water a mile or more down to irrigste hay on the lower benchlands.

Supplemental feeding of cattle during periods when native grass is scarce has become routine for a successful operation not only where winters are severe and forage is covered with snow but also in desert areas where long, hot, dry summers make feed hard to find. Along with supplemental feeding to put more meat on the hoof, it was found desirable to fatten cattle before offering them to the packing houses back east. This brought feedlots into being in the midwest, where corn and other grains suited to finishing out beef was raised in abundance.

Competition increased as the demand for top-quality beef grew. Ranchers then recognized the need to upgrade their stock to raise more prime beef. To do this they had to start crossbreeding with better beef breeds.

In the British Isles the Herefords, Angus and Shorthorns had been bred up to where they were recognized as top beef producers. About a hundred years ago, American cattlemen began to import full-blooded breeding stock from England, Ireland and Scotland.

Soon afterwards the various Purebred Cattle Associa tions were formed, each with its own diehard boosters who still believe their selected breed is the best. The asso ciations set standards for perfection in the main qualities and conformation of the animals and established strict regulations and procedures for recording and registering them to qualify as purebreds.

Rivalry continued as the associations plugged the qualities and advantages of various recognized breeds, and this opened the way for showing their chosen breeds to the public and other cattlemen. County fairs had included cattle entries, and for many years some local livestock shows had been organized. But not until the National Livestock Shows started did up-breeding of cattle become widely known and recognized as essential to better beef production. Nearly every cattleman then set his sights on having a purebred herd.

Due to the wide variety of climate, terrain and native feed from north to south, east to west, sea level to high altitudes, it was apparent that no one breed was best suited to all ranges. Most cattlemen who had accomplished the up-breeding of their stock with Registered Herefords, Angus, Shorthorns or other purebreds were satisfied with their own production capabilities and reluctant to change to any other breed.

In sections where purebreds seemed too soft to withstand adverse climates, unfavorable terrain and disease, ranchers began to experiment with crossbreeding of var ious purebreds to develop a type for their own areas.

A few ranchers who had traveled to other parts of the world imported breeding stock from regions with climates similar to theirs. In a short while the Brahman from India became popular in the Southwest, along the Gulf Coast and in Florida. The Brahman was larger, move rugged and rangy, and could survive on feed that other breeds passed up, could go longer without water, and was not bothered by flies or other insects. Other breeds were found to thrive up north right in the snow country.

Originally, the ideal castle ranch was one with a vast amount of lessed government land adjacent to the deeded home ranch to support a large herd without depleting the range. As much bottomland and rolling foothills have been turned into commercial farms, many of these large spreads have disappeared as they are being cut up into smaller ranches and sold. Big roundups and large horse remudas are becoming a thing of the past.

Today, the ideal setup is a single-family operation with just enough open range and water plus a farm to provide hay and stubble forage when the summer range has been used up. Add to this the finest beef-producing herd the rancher can buy or develop by crossbreeding.

Besides producing beef for the market, a small-scale ranch operation can produce purebred registered animals to be sold for breeding stock to other ranches that want to up-breed for better beef.

Purebred cattle for breeding stock bring much higher prices than beef cattle. They sell by the head rather than the pound. Some prize-winning bulls bring an easy $50,000, while top cows can sell for $10,000 a head.

An outstanding example of a successful ranch that operates along these lines is the Yerba Buena Ranch near Nogales, Arizona. This spread included a major part of the Maria Santisima Del Carmen Spanish Land Grant, which stretched along both sides of the Santa Cruz River, encompassing thousands of acres of rich river-bottom land and rolling hills with hardy, native vegetation.

The 10,000-acre Yerba Buena Ranch had been operated by the Thomas Griffins for many years when Stewart Granger bought it in 1957. The ranch had only forty acres of flood-irrigated farmland and was set up to run about 500 cows on open range. Two hundred Santa Gertrudis cattle went with the ranch when Granger took it over with Fred Voorhees as manager.

Big-sky pastoral

During visits to France, Stewart Granger had seen the beautiful cream-colored Charolais cattle, and he wondered if they would do well on his new ranch. He went to Houston, Texas, to find out all he could from the American International Charolais Association.

He learned that the purebred Charolais was a relative newcomer to the United States, although its upbreeding to superior beef cattle dates back over 200 years in France, where they were first used as draft animals. Developed in the Charolles district in central France, the Charolais is said to be of Jurassic origin. Officially development of the breed began in 1864 when Count Charles de Bouille set up the first Herd Book to record his selective breeding of Charolais at his farm near Magny-Cours.

The first Charolais in North America were brought in by Jean Pugibet, a Mexican of French descent. He became fascinated by them when he served as a French volunteer in the First World War. Back home in Mexico he formed a syndicate of cattlemen and imported thirtyseven purebred Charolais during 1930, 1931 and 1937. It is believed that all Charolais in Mexico, Canada and the United States are descended from the Pugibet herd.

According to available records, two Charolais bulls, Neptune and Ortolan, purchased by the King Ranch from Pugibet in 1936, are believed to be the first of the breed to enter the United States. Later, several other pioneer cattlemen brought in Charolais bulls from Mexico, but further importation was stopped in 1940 after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in that country.

This handful of seed stock, brought into the United States during a short span of ten years, had grown to around 41,000 purebred Charolais and foundation herds with over 250,000 recorded crossbreeds. More than 9,000 of these are in Arizona, where thirty-four ranches use them for up-breeding beef herds or raising purebreds.

So, after visiting several ranches that were raising these unusual French cattle, Stewart Granger decided that on his ranch he would raise these purebreds for breeding purposes only.

Granger and Voorhees put their heads together and decided on an ambitious plan for improving range and farming land to support 1,000 cows on 4,000 acres. To bring in working capital, the remaining 6,000 acres of more rugged rangeland would be sold.

Within six months after he bought the Yerba Buena Ranch, the Santa Gertrudis had been replaced with $290,000 worth of hand-picked purebred Charolais one bull and twenty-four cows. This foundation herd was pastured close to the ranch headquarters as large-scale development in outlying areas got under way.

A sum of $800,000 has been spent to improve the range, put 600 acres under cultivation, install an overall watering system, divide and fence the ranch into seven pastures, build corrals, set up an extensive sprinklerirrigation system, buy modern farming and mechanized mobile equipment and essential maintenance facilities.

The seven pastures of 360 acres each are fenced with five strands of barbed wire on steel posts fifteen feet apart. There is a service road along every fence. Each pasture has five watering troughs, so cattle never need to go more than a half mile to water. There are two main sources of water. A windmill on the higher eastern end of the ranch supplies three pastures by gravity flow. On the western end, a jet pump along the river sends water up to a tank on a high ridge from which the other four pastures are supplied. The windmill is backed up by a gasoline motor when needed. A long ditch from the Santa Cruz River upstream feeds water into a large holding lake built close to the headquarters. Thirteen miles of mobile sprinkler-pipe are used to irrigate the farmland.

Along the river 500 huge cottonwood trees were disposed of to enlarge the farmland and undesirable mesquite trees were eradicated from 2400 acres of rangeland to increase the annual native grass crop.

Today, ten years after the valuable Charolais came to Yerba Buena and the development and operation plan has been carried out to perfection, Granger is half way to his goal of 1,000 breeding cows prospering on 4,000 acres. For the past four years the ranch has paid its own way with 570 producing cows delivering approximately 500 calves a year. There are seven small herds divided according to their bloodlines and conformation.

To operate a purebred Charolais cattle ranch like the Yerba Buena and to be able to sell its calf output with a purebred tag on every animal, there are prescribed rules to follow and intricate records to keep just as a banker or chemist must. First, you should join the American International Charolais Association. The fee is $50.00 for a lifetime membership as long as a ranch has one purebred Charolais in its herd. Next you must buy some registered purebred or fullblooded Charolais breeding stock - a bull or cow or more, depending upon your objective and bank account. Be sure you have a registration certificate with each animal's lineage officially listed in its family tree and that you have a proper transfer of ownership made out to you. Fullblooded Charolais are direct descendants only from a registered cow and bull in France.

At the Yerba Buena Ranch, Mrs. Voorhees keeps all of the voluminous, detailed records along with the daily office work as well as the other responsibilities of a ranch wife. Calving time is when she needs to be on her toes to record information brought to her by the herdsman. When the calves start to drop, the herdsman must be ready and tatoo a herd number in each calf's ear and make a record of this number, along with the name and number of its dam and sire in the Field Book. It is easy to determine which calf belongs to each cow, as the cows will not mother any calf except their own, and the cow's identification has already been branded on its hip. The name and number of the sire is already known to the herdsman since only certain bulls are run with certain groups of cows in separate pastures. After the herdsman turns in the Field Book with the day's birth records, a name is selected for each new purebred calf, and its family tree, going back four generations, is written in the proper form. A registration application is sent to the Charolais Association with a fee of $10.00 for each registration in the Charolais Herd Book. Various fees are doubled for nonmembers of the association. In due time each purebred calf's birth is entered in the Herd Book and a certificate of registration is returned to the ranch. The calf is then on its way to take its place in the Charolais breeding world. Come weaning time, each calf is fire-branded with its herd number and the ranch holding brand.

This procedure applies only to registering purebred Charolais. Calves born as crossbreeds by either purebred Charolais sire or purebred Charolais dam must go through a different procedure before they can be registered. The association requires the crossbreeds to the recorded for the first four generations. The fifth generation calf is 31/32nd percent Charolais and can be registered in the Herd Book as a purebred. The cross can be with either sex, but with each breeding one parent must be a purebred Charolais.

In up-breeding, the Charolais bulls must be registered by the association, and the dams may be of any of the following breeds which are approved by the Charolais Association: Hereford, Angus, Santa Gertrudis, Shorthorn, Milking Shorthorn, Red Poll, Brahman, Brangus, Devon, Gallway, Scotch or Highland breeds or a com bination of those breeds. The dams must not originate from a dairy breed. If the rancher is interested in crossbreeding only to improve the beef capability of his herd and sell the offspring for beef, he might not want to have his Charolaiscross animals recorded. But, if he intends to up-breed to purebred Charolais, he must join or work with the Charolais Association and make the required application for recording crossbreeds as they are born. There is still another way a rancher can be in the purebred Charolais or crossbred Charolais business and that is through artificial insemination. Here again, he must work with the Charolais Association to have his calves recorded and registered.

In addition to basic procedures covered above, there is a sixty-page book of rules and regulations prepared by the association giving in exacting detail fifteen other procedures for Charolais breeders to follow.

Outstanding characteristics and beef-production qualities of Charolais, stated by their owners, are quoted from the association's brochures: “The purebred Charolais white or a very light straw in color... is a big, long-bodied, heavily muscled animal that has developed a world-wide reputation as a fast-growing and efficient producer of fine textured, tender beef.

“It is a vigorous, hardy and thrifty animal that demonstrates a high degree of feed efficiency and an exceptionally high weight per day of age.

“In conformation, the Charolais presents a distinctive appearance because of the heavy muscling in the loin and the round.

“The vigor and health of the Charolais is an outstanding feature Pink eye and cancer eye are practically unknown in the Charolais breed in North America There is no trouble with sunburned udders in winter.

“Experience in the Southwest and Mexico with Charolais cattle shows that they adapt quickly to conditions in those areas and thrive on rough, coarse feed. When necessary, they can survive and even gain weight on prickly pear, mesquite, soapweed, and various types of rough desert browse. “The breed is equally at home in sub-zero tempera-tures of the north or the hot, humid coastal areas.

“In the words of one experienced cattleman who recently changed to the Charolais breed, they are a good doing kind of cattle that require no special care or han-dling at any time of the year. Calves come ready to go and keep on going.

“Today, Charolais top all breeds in nearly every cate-gory of production in the records of beef performance testing organizations.

“What's more, Charolais carries its advantages over other breeds right into the packer's cooling rooms, the retailer's counters and the consumer's dinner tables.

Big news for Charolais breeders came on May 5, 1966, when Canada released 109 Charolais bulls and heifers from quarantine to the owners who had imported them direct from France under a special permit issued by their government. This permit required them to buy the animals only from French farms approved by the Canadian veterinarian in charge of the importation, and to transport them under strict sanitary regulations to the Brest Farm Station.

"Yerba Buena Ranch" Neptune, a senior Charolais herd sire on the Triple AAA Ranch, Phoenix

They arrived in Brest on September 8, 1965, and were kept under surveillance until mid-October, when they were shipped to Canada. On arrival, the animals were confined in the government quarantine barns on Grosse Isle, near Quebec City, during a lengthy, extensive series of tests for communicable diseases. They even were intermingled with thirty-four Holstein steers and twenty-six sheep that were highly susceptible to disease. The tests were completed May 2nd, and the Charolais were taken to Quebec City and shown. On May 5th the owners were allowed to transport them to their ranches. There, another ninety-day quarantine and final test was required before they were allowed to be put into breeding service. A number of these were soon transferred to breeders in the United States.

More important for American breeders was the announcement last October that twenty-four pure French Charolais, born in the Bahamas of prize French parentage on both sides, had just been imported into the United States the first in over thirty years. These animals are direct descendants of fifty French-born Charolais brought to the Bahamas in 1963 through the cooperation of the Bahamian Ministry of Agriculture and the Bahamian Livestock Company, a subsidiary of the Union Stock Yard and Transit Co. of Chicago. In order to get permission for these animals to enter the United States, they were placed under stringent quarantine and inspection similar to Canada's. Addition of these new pure French Charolais cattle will broaden the genetic base of the present American Charolais herds and open the way to the long-sought plan to accelerate crossbreeding under International American Charolais Association supervision of its more than 3,800 members.

KIVA RUIN

Who comes here now to void the still held in this empty place?

When wind sweeps the sacred sands away do spirits hide amidst the 'dobe walls to pray?

And where do memories inside half-walls stay? Do they sleep in this time-filled land like the sand paintings which have vanished into common clay Or do they roam the mesas listening for the call of ancient rites reborn, so their honored place can be resumed inside the round and secret walls.

PLACE USURPED

Time weaves a pattern All colors with green. While spring, a gay lassie Has charge of the skein, He sprinkles a fragrance On lacy blue threads, Then hastens to fashion The violet beds.

The gold strands for poppies He weighs in his hand, Then scatters bright throw rugs Over the land.

But just as he reaches For red for the rose, Summer comes running - The spring lassie goes.

THE COWBOY MENTIONS APRIL

Mark where the sun awakens the lea, (The sprigs are green on the cedar tree); Behold the blossoming in the dale, (The sorrel sheen on the bronco's tail).

The swallows cleave the heaven's track - (It sure seems good to have them back, And me and the steers have never heard Better singing from any bird.) How beautiful is April to my sight; The cactus pricks the purple night, And my breath is hushed and still When wind sneaks up the sagebrush hill. (And yet if spring could never be, We'd have more sense and less poetry.)

HAIKU'S

Wild oats gently flow Down over the biscuit hills Like golden honey Steamers of white silk Wings of the Russian Thistle Seed borne by the wind Wing of the May-fly Iridescent umbrella For a busy ant Spun glass waterfall Flowing through the mottled shade Bright liquid jewels Cool emerald leaves Swaying in a gentle wind Whispering at dawn

SURPRISES:

I want to compliment you on your lovely Christmas issue of ARIZONA HIGH WAYS.

My first visit to Arizona was a wonderful and beautiful surprise. When I thought of a desert, I thought I would be up to my knees in sand. What a surprise to see the desert in full bloom. I shall never forget it. My first sight of the Grand Canyon left me speechless. My husband said that was the first time that had ever happened. And he vowed to take me there again!

Now when our ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine arrives, I get homesick. Me, a "dyed in the wool" New Englander.

LONGEVITY:

The Veterans Hospital at Fort Lyon, Colorado, has large magazine racks with all the latest magazines displayed. It was quite a surprise when I ran across some copies of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. I picked up a maga zine whose cover I did not recognize. I checked the date: it was June 1947, and I found another printed July 1948 A pretty durable magazine, I'd say, and a tribute to the universal nature of your magazine.

We feel our magazine never grows old, because the land it portrays never grows old.

GETTING AROUND:

You may have wondered why I subscribe each year to your very beautiful and interesting magazine for my sister, but not for myself. Actually I buy it almost monthly at the corner store, but I also buy many other copies to send to pen friends abroad. For instance, whenever there is an issue about birds, butterflies, etc. I buy that particular issue for my botany teacher whom I had in 1916 and 1917 in England.I buy at least eight copies of your Christ mas issue, as well as back copies of other issues at second-hand magazine places, when I find some I do not have or want to send to pen friends.

We just got back from a magnificent trip to your immensely interesting state, having visited Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon Caverns, Flagstaff, Holbrook, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Jerome, Clarkdale, the Tuzigoot ruins, Montezuma's Castle, Winslow, the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Newspaper Rock, Chinle. We hiked to the bottom of the gorgeous Canyon de Chelly, then went on to Monument Valley where we took the 10-hour conducted tour, and found it fascinating. We visited many other areas where there were Indian ruins and also went to Sunset Crater, then on to Kingman, and home.

YOURS SINCERELY

We have always loved Arizona and hope to visit it many times in the future. I'd like to live in your state, but we'll have to wait until my husband retires to do that.

We took along past issues of your maga zine about the places we planned to visit and read them all during the evenings. It made the trip more interesting.

I bought eight issues of your April, 1966 issue about Payson, to send to friends as our son lived there for ten months in 1964, and we visited him there.

Your magazine is quite the most beautiful on the market, and from the letters you pub lish it really gets around. All the persons to whom I send it are very much impressed by its beauty and also its articles.

LARRY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF BIRDS:

I have just finished reading your March issue, and just can't tell you how pleased I am with your feature Larry Toschik's Won derful World of Birds. What a truly wonder ful artist he is!

PHELPS DODGE:

Mr. Peplow's article on the Phelps Dodge mining operation at Morenci in your February issue was very revealing to me. It is an accolade for American enterprise. Imagine spending nearly $50,000,000 before one pound of copper could be mined from the earth.

OPPOSITE PAGE

"SAGUARO SILHOUETTE" BY DAVE DAVIS. Photo taken on Scottsdale Road a few miles south of Carefree, Arizona, which is a resort community north of Scottsdale. Scenes such as this are one of the joys of desert living. Linhof Technika camera; Anscochrome; f.16 at 1/8th sec.; Super Angulon 1:8 90mm lens; sunset; 17 (Gossen Lunasix meter) ASA rating 50.

BACK COVER

"TOP OF THE WORLD - VIEW FROM THE MOGOLLON RIM" BY FRANK ELMER. Photo taken from the Mogollon Rim, east of Kohl's Ranch, near Payson, Arizona along Arizona 160, at the entrance to Sitgreaves National Forest. The area is noted for its fishing and hunting. 4x5 Burke & James Press camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/100th sec.; 6" Goertz Aerotar lens; June; bright day; ASA rating 50.