At a couple sales that I attended in SD a few years ago, Herreid was one, the red calves seemed to sell as well or better than the black calves. RWF and BWF also sold about the same for similar quality.

However at some barns south and east of SD it seems like it has to be black hide color to bring a good price regardless of what the calves look like otherwise or who raised them etc.  That seems to be why breeders in some geographic areas work at turning almost every breed black.

I think the sale barn effect of feeder calf hide color depends to a large extent on your location and local markets. Good luck.

Please see below on why I chose Fleck for my first terminal cross breeding experiment.