What if?

[cowman]

Ah yes Kato, the old purebred game! Been there, done that! When I was a kid if your calf was'nt a red white face you were toast! Now if he isn't black or of an Angus persuasion you might as well go home.
And here are all the poor Charlais breeders kids with these darned white steers!
And if the kid sells the champ it makes the old man look good and the bull buyers show up at the door.
Unfortunately that is the nature of the game and it won't change! That is why 4H is basically flawed. Maybe it would be better to have the kids join the 4H sewing club or something?

[kato]

The white steers have always been discriminated against as far as shows are concerned. Our boys always had white steers, and stuck it out. They were of an age where the 10 foot tall underfinished Simmentals won all the time. One judge justified his choice one year because according to him, the Grand Champion had "eye appeal". Never mind that he would be lucky to grade a B.

Our boys learned to stick to their guns, and stayed with their home grown steers. They knew a fad when they saw it. They still know one. That was a big lesson they took out of the program.

[cowman]

Well if they learned that then they really did get something out of it!
I always did like Charlais cattle. I still think nothing grows like a Char!
The first Char bull I ever used was on a herd of purebred hereford cows and those white faced buckskin calves were something else! Rang the bell at the mart for sure!
Now the trend is Angus! Which is okay because they've come a long way. I use some AI angus bulls on the heifers, but still go with a Char Or red Simmental on mature cows. Some of those old first cross Char/hereford cows were the best I've ever owned. Good feet,udders, milked well, good dispostions, very fertile, big, lived forever!
The bad thing I see with this Angus trend is that the commercial man is using Angus bulls again and again. This is not a good thing! If you are not cross breeding you are leaving one hell of a lot of money in the field! Or as my old AI instructor put it...You don't need to crossbreed if you inherited the farm and a million dollars, or if you have ten oil wells, but otherwise you'd better be crossbreeding!