Your climate and feed sources usually dictates which breeds you will want to consider. There are infinite combinations of conditions. There are even more opinions, but a few examples would be:
If you are in the south where average temperatures remain high and typically parasite loads are harder to control then a Brahma cross animal handles this well. Brahman have more blood vessels closer to the surface and therefore dissipates heat more readily. They evolved with parasites and have developed resistance. (Brahma/Angus Brangus, Brahma Hereford Braford, etc.)
If you are in the southwest where a cow really has to work hard to make a living and has to be efficient with feed and roughage, then you might consider crossing a little Longhorn in your stock. Where foraging and terrain is tough Longhorn crosses do well.
If you have accessible pastures and easy feeding then you might consider a continental breed like a Simmental, Saler, Charlais, etc., cross. Typically, you will get a bigger frame, bigger cow, bigger calf, but the feed inputs are higher too. The cow needs more forage and, the catch, more winter feed/hay.
In any case Black Angus (English breeding) and Black Angus crosses are the trend and buyers tend to pay a little more for Angus influenced calves. It is mostly due to the belief that the Black Angus cattle have made the most advancements in carcass quality and breeding ( right or wrong that is the trend). Today, you will find many producers breeding enough Black Angus into their stock to keep the color black to attract the higher bidders. Black color is dominant so it is not hard. Many producers do well with Black Angus alone.
Our example is we run on thousands of acres of irrigated bottom ground and hundreds of acres of mountain pasture that is not too difficult to navigate. We want to wean big calves and often wean and feed calves into the winter. Easy feeding, quality and quantity of cheap feed is not an issue for us. It gets cold here (It snowed all but two months last year, but summers can also get into the hundreds for a few weeks at a time; mountains of NE Oregon). So, what we do is cross Red Angus, Black Angus, and add a dash of Saler. I really like the feed efficiency of the Red Angus, the carcass values of the Black Angus, and the pelvis and milk of the Saler. We also deal with many predators, to include wolves now, and the Saler has no patience for threats to their calves. Our combination does lead to a fairly large framed cow, but we can afford it and enjoy large calves for it.
That being said, you will find as many opinions as producers. The best bet is to do a little research about what works best for your area. The driving force should be to run most efficient cow for your conditions while trying to balance what is profitable with what is practical.
