You are bringing up a good point, Matt. 

Here I am working for a couple years to reduce my average cow size and all of a sudden I'm a bit dazzled by the Fleck's "big, fancy looking calves" which will probably turn into fancy but huge cows!

My plan has been to work towards a herd of 1100-1200 lb Hereford cows that wean 600 lb 205 day F1 calves...maybe I need to put that goal on a big sign and put it up on my office wall!

If I had more acres I'd love to fill them up with "big fancy looking calves" but I don't.

Thanks for the reminder. I love those F1 calves but should probably stick with my plan.

Maybe sell them as heifers next spring rather than process for beef but not get back into huge cows.

Thank you.

Edit to add: Here's a mid-summer (7/19) picture of my ideal cow from an efficiency (lbs of beef/acre) point of view. This cow weighed 1195 lb last time across the scale while this calf is now over 600 lb and looks great. Projected to be well over 650 lb at 205 days.  650/1195= .54  54% is exactly what I am looking for from a cow. BTW this steer calf #114 is out of my previous Hereford bull, EFBeef C627, a Tested son, so he is a straight Hereford and gaining well.

(IMG011 Young cow 55 and calf 114 071918 (full).jpg)

IMG011 Young cow 55 and calf 114 071918 (full).jpg (140KB - 5 downloads)