Yes, if I sold them conventionally I would loose my shirt ($$) selling them at 1000 lb. Same for selling spring Hereford calves as feeders in the fall. I don't see much opportunity for profit there either, at least at current prices.

But as a system, my approach appears to be working. I guess most of you on NAT would say my steers are not really "finished" at 1000-1100 lb. They're certainly not as heavy or fat as the "fat" steer pics often shown here.

In my system, harvesting at 1000 lbs is a necessity as I don't have the acres nor setup to have two calf crops on my farm at the same time, at least for more than a few months, let alone feed them as many of you do. Harvesting young off of spring pastures does produce very tender beef. I am also developing my own genetics that can marble early and mostly (or completely) off of grass. The trick is getting them over 1000 lb and hopefully close to 1100 lb and marbled in 13-14 months without a lot of inputs other than good grass.  I have grazed steers on standing corn over the winter.

Stacking generations of early maturing cattle along with buying Hereford bull after Hereford bull with emphasis on marbling EPD (my current Schu-Lar Hereford bulls rank in the top 3 or 4% of the Hereford breed for marbling EPD) and retaining all of my own heifers is producing steers I can profitably harvest for direct sale at 13 or 14 months of age.  And the month of May is when the retail beef market is really hot as the grilling season starts.

So overall this system is "profitable" when viewed as a complete system. Although, by retaining essentially all of my own heifers as I try to build my herd internally, my "profits" so far are basically all "reinvested" into additional cows. I started with 6 purchased put-together heifers 10 years ago and am now at around 60 head total. I basically only buy a good registered bull or two every couple years.  It looks like I should be seeing some positive cash, in addition to building cow inventory, in the near future.