Ok here goes...
All of these calves are calves from my summer calving season, so they are all born from mid October to mid November. No creep feed, raised on mostly native veld, weaned on irrigated kikuyu pasture at around 7-8 months old. I'll state where I have fed grain and how much or for how long if applicable.
Firstly your calf, you said you have fed him some grain after weaning, but haven't pushed him, right?
Correct
After you've upped his ration to 15lbs a day if I remember correctly?
Correct again
This calf hasn't received anything but pasture in his life, he was later pulled into the showstring and was shown two months after this pic was taken. He was sold to a commercial breeder as a yearling. He was just about 8 months old in this photo.
Seems to be short coupled and a little light muscled. Although, and I hesitate to say this because I don't know the quality of the grass you speak of, for grass fed he does look OK. The reason I say that is because the grasses you have may be similar to the fescue I have or they could be as good as wheat, brome, or any other high quality forage. The difference could be huge. I also can't see much difference in masculinity between this calf and mine, just a lot more hair.
This calf also hasn't been fed any grain, he has his good points, but I never saw him as anything more than a commercial bull prospect.
Breaks behind the shoulders and has a steep hip. Two of the faults my bull has also.
This was a calf that I thought highly of, he had just gotten a nosering here and I was slowly starting him on feed, similar to what you have given your bullcalf in the first pic.
Can't see much difference in this pic and the next as you say other than I think he looks better in the first. I'm not real hip on how his belly turns upward so sharply in the scrotum area but that's being pretty picky. Could be a little deeper chested. Overall a thick, fine looking calf.
This is the same calf 10 days later, still just on pasture with a little feed. Do you see how much difference 10 days can make when a little feed is offered?
Actually, I can't see much difference, just as I couldn't see much difference in mine. How many lbs do you think your calf gained in those 10 days? Knowing the conditions and the feed mine was getting, I'd guess him to have gained between 20 and 25 lbs considering it was near 100 degrees every day between when I posted pics. I guess I'm not too good at judging weights because it's hard for me to see 20 lbs difference on an 800+ lb calf.
This bullcalf was also started on feed when the photo was taken, very early days in the feeding process as you can see he is still in the halterbreaking process. BTW of all these calves posted, this was the only one I deemed to be worthy of use in my herd. He sports a very heavy winter coat here as we had a very cold early winter in 2007. He is the older bull in the background of the second photo. The bullcalf infront in the second photo has been in a growth test and isn't a year old yet in the photo.
This calf is also what I would call light muscled. He also appears to be short coupled and steep hipped. I also don't care for his light orange color. I banded a Legend 242 son that had very similar phenotype to this one on the same day I took that first pic, only he was much darker red and had goggle eyes. Mine also lacked thickness over the top which I cannot tell on your pic due to the angle. Again, very hard to see much with all that hair.
You speak above of the one bull being nothing more than a commercial bull prospect. I guess I should have made my intentions more clear as that is all I see my calf as. He has far too much white to do any seedstock producer any good in my opinion. I truly do believe that he could possibly work for someone who has a predominantly black herd and make there operation more profitable.
