Is castration necessary?

[Deepsouth]

In the tetanus and banding thread Bez made a post stating that he no longer castrated his calfs but sold them whole right off the cow. I didn't want to hijack the thread so I'm starting a new thread.
Bez's post got me to thinking about something that happened to me. I sold a group of steers last fall and when I got my sale report from the yard it showed that I had sold one bull. I had banded them and figured I must have missed a nut on one but was surprised that they caught it at the yard. So I wondered if they got one of mine mixed up with something else but I don't see how I watched them put the stickers on them all. Well what ever happened didn't bother me because the bull brought just as much as the steers no dockage at all that I could tell. They averaged 498 lbs.
So is castration necessary or is it something that we do just because we have always been told to do it and we just never asked why. As Bez pointed out I sure can see a lot of positives in not castrating.

 

[J&D Cattle]

They dock at the sales around here. We knife cut and it just doesn't take that much time when you've already got them in the chute for shots. You'll hear both sides and maybe it is a 6 or half dozen thing but for us we will continue to cut. We give two rounds of shots and also wean for 45 days. We're trying to develope "reputation" cattle and this is what the local buyers have suggested. I see the premiums also during the sales I attend to both my as well as other like cattle. Special VAC sales really help prices.