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Beefmaster influence fits Chaparrosa program

published: December 13th 2002
by: Martha Hollida Garrett

“She’s as good a cow as we can have down here,” emphasizes Bill Howell, cattle manager of Chapar-rosa Ranch, La Pryor, Texas, as he talks about the Beefmaster E6 female.

The famous Chaparrosa Ranch was purchased by Mr. B., a businessman from Mexico in 1993 and the land was stocked with Brahman x Hereford F1 females. They began using Limousin, Angus and a few Beefmaster bulls on these females. Then in 1995 they began using more Beef-master bulls as they liked the females this cross was producing.

Today the ranch is home to 1,000 head of momma cows. Approxi-mately 200 of these are E6 females, who are having their  second and third calves and these are bred to Angus bulls. The remainder of the females are the F1’s bred to Beefmaster bulls, resulting in the E6 female, endorsed and promoted by Beefmaster Breeders Universal.

“The E6 is an affordable cow and you can breed her to any breed and get a good-doing calf. She has an excellent udder and teats and we have found her to be as good a cow as we can have here, “ explains Howell.

Chaparrosa has purchased bulls from McAllen Ranch, Jimmy Bradley, Seymour Wormser and from consignors to the Live Oak Beefmaster Breeders Association Sale, just to name a few. Currently they have 25 Beefmaster bulls working on the ranch.

“Our heifer calves out of the F1 x Beefmaster bulls averaged 559 pounds at weaning this year while the steers averaged 606 lbs. Then the steer calves out of the E6 x Angus females averaged 612 pounds and the heifers averaged 567 pounds,” says Howell.

Chaparrosa maintains a 90 day breeding season, as the bulls are with the cows in April, May and June. Overall they had a conception rate of 80% plus.

“This was not a good year moisture wise. From October 2001 till July 2nd 2002 we had less than two inches of rain. So to have these kind of conception rates and weaning weights shows just how good these females perform,” says Howell.

In addition to the performance, Howell finds the cattle to be even tempered and easy to work. In addition they have very little sickness which is a big plus when you run cattle in 3,000-5,000 acre pastures.

“We gather the cattle with helicopters and then work them on horseback and foot and we are very pleased with their dispositions.

Chaparrosa selects 100 females as replacements each year, then the rest of the females are ran on native pasture and they have a customer, who then comes and makes a sizeable selection. The remainder are sold when they come off of oats and some of the years, they have fed some of the heifers.

Ownership is retained on the steers out of the E6 females and they are fed at Pioneer Feeders, Oakley, Kansas.

“We have just started getting carcass data back on these steers and we are very anxious to incorporate this information into our program,” describes Howell.

Some of the steers out of the F1 x Beefmaster bulls are fed through the Nolan Ryan Tender Aged Beef program. This marketing outlet has worked real well for Chaparrosa and according to Howell is something they are excited about and will continue to do.

They have also sold some of the E6 females through the San Antonio Commercial Female Sale and one year won the Beefmaster division.

In addition to the ranch in La Pryor, Mr. B. also owns a ranch in Mexico, about  50-60 miles west of Eagle Pass. They have a purebred Beefmaster operation at this location. Then a ranch is also located in New Mexico, about 120 miles south of Deming, where there is an irrigated stocker operation and Beefmaster crosses are purchased if available.

“We feel the E6 program is a valuable marketing tool and the females themselves really make the program. They are doing the job for us and we continue to be impressed,” he concludes.

SLS