Wisteria, I'm glad to hear that your giving up some of your pasture to your daughter. My parents also let me have a large barn and a couple acres of pasture to raise some cattle. It was (and still is) a great learning experience. I started out with dairy calves and have since moved to buying a few herf/angus crosses. Originally, the reason why I got into it was because I had a money-blowing problem and since I missed the animals that I had as a young kid I decided to go this route. I'm so glad I did, i now squeek when I walk, lol. Before i started we hadn't had cattle in a couple of years, but when we went to the sale barn to buy them previously, my dad always let me pick them.
Needless to say, i didn't get bidded against much (not because they were sickly, but because I was cute, lol). Well anyway, so when I went to the sale barn to buy my first couple of bull calves, my dad wouldn't help me out that much (he'd only tell me if something was going to high). This lasted and my dad still won't tell me how to deal with them, unless I ask his opinion on something. My first steer that i sold was not graded, because he was butchered for my parents and one of my brothers boss's. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but my first steer brought $1309 at 11 month and might I add, he tastes great. I actually had a great comment on this steer, family of that boss's girlfriend came down from N. Dakota and said that it was the best beef they had ever tasted (they buy direct from a rancher up there) and that they wanted a steer or beef shipped up there for them.
But since then, I've had all of them grade prime and choice, and even had a couple slipped into a load of beef steers because of how filled out and beefy they were. Which you guys here on CT had a lot more to do with then you will ever know, so I would like to thank you know.
Make sure that when your daughter gets her cattle, no matter which way she goes, let it be
her herd and let her make the decisons. Of course, step in before she makes a really bad decision (which hopefully will not be necessary).
PS. Is she paying for the cattle?