Too Small Framed?

Any time you go to a sale barn with small groups or any other color than black you usually lose money...  learned a long time ago , sellm somewhere besides a sale barn if any way possible, unless you have quite a few head to sort an make acceptable groups ....  There are some ranchers up here that raise top smokey an cream Charolais that buyers have had that will quite the blacks pretty well.. also some red Angus cattle that make a big racket too... Some buyers complain that they can't get enough of the Charolais X an red Angus to feed....    Some of the buyers complain also that just cause there black don't mean there  good feeding cattle an that it is getting harder to tell the difference ....Some buy the blacks for winter an the Charolais X for the hotter weather ...Thats  in North Central Ne. an it varies with the area's ....

The show steers that are winning are definitely the wrong kind for commercial purposes.  You can't make a living losing 1 out of 10 to calving problems and I've seen them sell for at least 20 dollars cwt less than "normal" calves.  However, I 've always thought that a small framed efficient Ohlde bred cow will get by on less inputs and produce more pounds of calf in her lifetime than a big exotic.  It depends on if your trying to raise replacement females as well as steers.  If your goal is the salebarn for terminal purposes, growth is the main factor, for replacements growth should be down the list of priorities.

most of the show steers that are winning are on cushy specialized diets, cooked corn in a crock pot, cooked barkey & constant attention to individual animals needs which is not a option for the commercial cattleman running several hundred head or thousnd for that matter.