Charolais cattle are characterized by high growth rate and high lean meat rate. Under good feeding conditions, the 6-month-old male calf can reach 250 kg and the female calf can reach 2 10 kg. The daily gain can reach1400 g. In Canada, bulls can reach 5 1 1 kg under good feeding conditions. As a specialized large-scale beef cattle, this cattle has good meat production performance, with slaughter rate of 60%-70% and lean meat rate of 80%-85%. The carcass weight of 16 month-old fattening cattle was 4 18 kg, and the slaughter rate was 66.3%. Charolais cows have a high milk yield, with a milk yield of 2,000 kg in one lactation period and a milk fat rate of 4.0%-4.7%. However, the dystocia rate of this kind of cattle in pure breeding is high (13.7%).
The muscle fiber of Charolais cattle is rough, and the tenderness of meat is not good enough. 1964 and 1974, Charolais cattle were directly introduced from France twice in China, which were distributed in parts of northeast, northwest and south. Using this breed to cross with local yellow cattle in China to improve yellow cattle has achieved obvious results. The results showed that the hybrid offspring of summer sowing were obviously enhanced in physique, accelerated in growth rate and obvious in heterosis.