If a Char cow or bull threw dinky calves they would get rid of them, not breed from them. My husband's father raised pedigree charlais. My husband bred up a herd of Beefmaster purebreds after they had to sell all the chars to pay the death taxes. He got them to where they were too big and had to breed them back down to regular size.
He tells me my idea of a registered herd to sell breeding stock does not really work unless you also have a commercial herd going on. Say, youve got 100 pedigree cows, and half are bull calves. Only the top 20% are going to be good looking breeding stock. Once you sell those off the rest don't look so good.
Some people, home steader and hobby farm types on the Keeping a Family Cow board are hyping mini Jerseys. They actually don't want that much milk. They "share milk" leaving the calf on so their lazy butt only has to milk once a day. But these mini Jerseys look like they shorter legs on a normal cow, kind of like Basset Hounds are full size big dogs with ridiculous short legs.
They also like Dexters, they say the bulls are good for breeding Jersey heifers because small calves in a breed that is already small. The crossbreds don't make as much milk and have more meat on them. A little, not a lot. I prefer pure bred Jerseys. Bred to an Angus heifer bull makes a calf
