Back in 1993, our family had the opportunity to visit a ranch in Alabama. They ran about a hundred cows. Each cow looked so different from the other cows that they didn't need ear tags; in fact each cow had her own name. The calving program was year around, and there were four bulls for breeding. One bull was polled Hereford, one was Simmental, one was Santa Gertrudis, and the other was a Limousin. As we were taking the tour, I asked the proprietor, "Have you ever considered using four bulls of the same breed to get more uniformity in the calf crop?" The answer was, "No, the buyers like crossbred cattle." :roll:
The marketing consisted of taking a stock trailer load of calves to the Montgomery sale barn periodically throughout the year. I asked if they sold the whole trailer load at one time through the ring. The answer was that usually the calves sold one at a time, but occasionally two head would sell at the same time.
As far as mongrel cattle go, it would seem that this herd would qualify. :wink: