It seems like a high percentage of people writing books etc do the direct marketing thing which I understand from a perspective of trying to maximize profits. It's just that we can't all be (many don't want to be) in that business. I view it as being a little irrelevant because direct marketing meat is a seperate enterprise. I'm interested in the cattle business and how to do that efficiently.
I read How Not To Go Broke Ranching recently and in it the author talked an awful lot about not going after high weaning weight. A large percentage of the argument.was based on the idea that high weaning weight = big cows. What if you cheat? Don't keep replacements - keep buying in small/moderate sized cows, use a terminal bull from a breed that grows faster than most, fresh well water, above average pasture quality and management? Why wouldn't I want to wean big calves? Do the arguments for more smaller cows account for the fact I have to buy/retain more animals? As someone who grows their herd often I'll point out there's a cost/head of either deffered income or borrowed money associated with each cow. In fact a lot of costs - vaccines, tags, labour to process cows/calves, selling fees at auction are per head so why would I specifically want a smaller calf?
I like the principles of regenerative ag. We need to look beyond the status quo. There are natural ways to amend our soil. If we can sequester carbon as a result there's a plus side to that. The answer to doing something that doesn't make money isn't to do more of it. I won't exchange one flavour of Kool aid for another though. Everything should be looked at objectively.