OK, here's the rest of the story.
The first heifer, 30A, I bought based on her pedigree. This was early in my desire to find the right genetics that would make for long-lasting fertile, maternal cows to form a base of a herd I could grow over time to do well on a grass-only system with long hard winters, etc. Her pedigree had lots of well-respected genetics in the grassfed low input world and so I decided to take a flyer on her even though I didnt love how she looked. She raised three very ordinary calves, got behind on the third calf and was one of the latest to calve and then came up open the next year. She got bigger and thicker each year and didnt put much into her calves. Relative to her peers, she was in the lower 25% of weaning weights on all three. Her only saving grace is that she made really good burger herself after 3 calves. Here she is as a 4 year old:
For everyone that liked the phenotype on 16, you picked the easy winner of this contest. I already talked about her a bit when I started a thread about using your own bulls as I just bought back the second of two bulls of hers that I have sold to local dealers. She has had 9 calves, always been in the first quarter of cows to freshen, and is bred again without losing any real time even though we succesfully flushed her with her original breeder this summer. She has had 5 daughters and all are in production here except one that met an untimely death. 2 bulls sold for about double what I would net off them as feeders or finishing them myselves and two nice steers that I finished. She lost a quarter a couple years ago, I'm guessing some mastitis, but it hasnt hurt her calves a bit. She is very correct on her feet and legs, great disposition, and I'm glad to have her genetic thumbprint all throughout the herd. Early on in trying to determine what phenotype works best here, I would have not had her type as my first choice but over time I have found these deep-bodied cows with good capacity to be essential to long-lasting fertility here. A couple pics:
Here's one Tahoe will understand. This is typical calving conditions here and this is her as a 5 year old. The 104 cow was her first calf and the 200 calf is her third:
Last year:
Finally, the cow with the calf in the picture, 67S. Based off phenotype, she would have been my guess for which would make me the most money over time. That said, I spent my first 18 years in love with dairy cows and I've had to adjust my bovine spectacles over the last 15 to what makes a truly productive and ideal beef cow. She is also still here and has had a calf every year and has been in the first half of my cows to freshen every year. However, she's always struggled to maintain enough condition and its not because she is raising huge calves. It stood out to me this year when I decided to put her with the more terminal bull because I realized I've not once retained a calf of hers. Just not enough growth to them. I've only had scales for 2 years but she has always weaned a calf that I would guess is in the bottom third of her peers. That said, 10 live calves is sure enough a moneymaker. Someone said on the other thread that sometimes the ones that make you the most stand out the least. In her case, she has always stood out to me phenotypically, but her calves never stand out. A few pics.
