If you assume this is a genetic issue, your 35 year number would jump out to most geneticists. You're creeping up on the 7th generation mark that is commonly accepted as being the magic number for genetic purity and stability. You might be discovering you've been benefitting from the dwindling affects of heterosis all along and pampering the young stock might have hid the problem from appearing for a generation or two. I'm not saying catering to them is bad, it makes financial sense in many scenarios, it just masks our ability to discover problems until they become a more noticeable problem.

The number of young angus cows in sales that have obviously been rolled back a season the last few years is quite shocking. It's becoming obvious many breeders don't know what a growth curve is or why their chase for performance has lead to a longer growth curve. Some of these cows seem like they never stop growing and one of the most heavily use bulls in the breed is obviously part of the problem. Worse yet, some of the people are now correcting this with moderation without realizing they're not correcting the growth curve issue. Moderate cows with the same issue is a disaster because you don't even get to cash the bigger cull check. It doesn't help that realizing you're moving the peak and length of the growth curve takes more than a decade, and that assumes you're even actually measuring your cattle to begin with.

At some point the industry has to admit big fast growing steers come at a cost. If the industry isn't willing to use heterosis and complementary breeding in order to reach that goal it will continue to absorb the cost of doing it the hard way. This cost only comes out of one pocket, and it damn sure isn't the packer.