BFE said:
No matter if you buy or retain it's not a cheap proposition. I've bought and bought and still will if the right situation pops up as it did for me this summer on three nice heifers that's were raised under similar management as mine. We'll see how they turn out but I'm obviously betting on them. The key for me is knowing how they were developed. I know how my retainers are developed. I don't need feed bucket queens on my place so I'm wary of buying just anything. I've lived through that train wreck before and ain't climbing back on another.
That is my same mentality.
These guys advertising dont cull thru those cattle. When you develope them at home you can see which ones are not up to snuff over time.
I guarantee you when you get that set from J&J to the house there are going to be a couple great ones, a lot of decent ones, some that are going to flat fall apart, and one or two that will need to be culled for temperament. If you turn them fast enough your salvage price won't be far from what you paid.
I will give J&J credit in that they usually will cut out what you want, 1 or 100, not like some of the others who do gate cut or it's a all or nothing deal.
Most of the cattle I have bought that turned out were from people I know, know how they operate, know how they were raised, etc. We generally trade around together as people gain places, lose places, need cash, etc.