We have a nice black sim angus bull on our cows and he has been there for the second year. He doesn't have a big head, his babies aren't huge either and the heifers don't have a problem calving. He has a real small white patch on his face. Most of the babies have been black or black baldies except from some char cross cows and the will be smokey or kind of yellow. 2 out of the 3 so far have been white faced. All have been polled, even out of a long horn cow. Year before last, his first year to produce a calf crop we had 1 red calf but we also had a pretty snaky brahma hereford young bull in there the boys must not have caught and castrated that I attribute the red calf to because everything else has been black. I think for us in NW LA this is a good cross, a lot of my cows have some ear and the babies tend to retain that, not a lot of leather so that's a plus and reasonably fast growth and a decent docility factor, maybe from him but maybe from handling them. We supplement with distillers grain and bread because both are inexpensive for us and we always call them in to feed in different locations and often feed them in the catch pen and close the gates which forces them to exit through the chute. I like the ross, I think the sim added a lot of what the bull contributes and if we have to change bulls I think we'll do the same although I'd consider an sim brangus if he's homozygous black and polled. I'm not willing to try to make a stand and raise too many colored calves to buck the trend and see if it makes a difference. I know we will get a premium for a black or black baldy and it costs the same to produce and raise them as a colored calf so why fight it despite the fact that the colored calf may be as "good". What I really deem as "good" is my check will be for more with the black ones
