Talking about the difference in feeding cattle for one month in the south as opposed to feeding 4-6 months in the north... costs of hay, different things like that. Both
@Silver and
@gcreekrch are about as far north of any of our "members here... they both make hay ....A LOT OF HAY..... and run their cattle on huge numbers of acres.... and the looks of their calves would make my mouth water any day of the week... Their grazing season is about 5 months +/- I would say... so I think that the differences are documented. They also run mostly red cattle.... so the whole "black is better" is a BS bunch of crap that is a marketing tool... and a very well done marketing strategy.
@kenny thomas is right... half brothers of red and black would bring in the $.20 to .40 cents difference every single time here.
You are also looking at different types of soil, and the fact that every farmer I have ever known up in the new england states was always wanting a good snow cover in the winter so that the small amounts of nitrogen that is in the snow will seep into the ground. It was called the poor man's fertilizer for a reason.