Why "The fascination with "Hairy""? Quite simply because it does have value in the context of the showring. Quite a bit of value, as a matter of fact. The cattle that are promoted as being hairy are show cattle, or meant for raising show cattle. Many of them are what alot of breeders, even some clubbie breeders, would consider to be terminal sires anyway. Which simply means they don't expect them to pass on things like fertility and "acceptable" birth weights. If you're not trying to raise show cattle, then why would you consider using them - so why would you even care? If you are, then you're either single mindedly trying to raise $10,000 show steers, in which case the more hair the better, or you're trying to balance that hair, like any other trait (bone, muscle, frame size, etc...), into the package you desire. If that's you, then you're probably trying to breed a little more hair onto your slicker haired cows anyway. If not, there are plenty of clubbie type sires that are promoted as being "slick shear type sires" - in most cases, those are slicker haired themselves, too.
I think no matter who you are, or where you're at in the cattle business, there are going to be traits that someone else is chasing that simply don't interest you at all. That still doesn't mean they don't have their place, and they can't be important and valuable to someone else. I have some good friends that raise completely different types of cattle than I do - one who's goal is selling e.p.d. based bulls, and one who is chasing the gene star deal. This spring, each of the three of us' high selling calves brought within $300 of one another, and I'm happy for them, and I believe they're happy for me - yet not one of us would have any interest whatsoever in owning either of the other's "best calves"... It's just another one of those little things that makes the world go 'round.
