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Thank you very much, that was informative.

I could end up with 3/4 Hereford and 1/4 Holstein easy enough. This bull is for sale in town.

I won't need it for a long time, but I know where it comes from and they'll have more.

To the best of my knowledge we don't have any short horns around here. Charolais I would probably have to AI. A guy has a herd of Red Angus about 30 miles away., I'm sure I can work something out, even if it was telling him I needed a bull two years in the future.

But if the goal is to utilize 30 acres for individual sale and local processing, that would never be graded, never USDA, and hormone free, taste becomes a little more important than the grade of marbling on beef that is never tasted.


Annnnd, I just opened a different can of worms
A friend of mine has about 100 dairy cross calves that he finishes for private freezer beef sale. He buys the calves only when they are dirt cheap and he says he makes much more money on them than he does his regular beef calves. We were talking Sunday and he had just bought a load of cross calves for 78 cents a pound last week.
 
Yup, if you can get 'em cheap enough, it can be worth it. Just remember that it takes quite a bit more feed per pound of gain, and you have to keep 'em longer to get 'em there. Will need a higher energy dense ration to put the flesh on 'em too.
 
I will throw a monkey wrench in this conversation. I'm a little unclear, but I think you want to buy feeders from your friend - that may or may not be 1/2 dairy - and you want to finish on grass??? Before you get a group of cattle "finished on grass", buy a good steak from another grass fed operation and make sure it is something you want to eat and sell.
Corn fed will finish them off quicker and have better flavor
@SBMF 2015 said "1. Simple rule of finishing cattle: Corn makes fat, fat makes flavor."
and I totally agree. Also, the quicker you can get them finished, the more tender the meat will be. Older gets tougher.
 
Beef or crossbred calves , stay away from dairy stuff . They'll break your heart when you go to sell them .
 

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