It seems that producers appear to fall into two categories.
Those that keep records and those that don't. Just read the other day that only 26% of producers keep some form of records. From notes on a calendar, in a spiral notebook or even in the little red book.
We have commercial producers in our area that do an excellent job of manageing their herds, they may run multiple bulls with the cows, but when they keep replacements they are getting them DNA tested for parentage to know which sire they were out of along with other DNA tests. They work with their vet and keep excellent records of vaccinations and procedures. When they take their cattle to the sale they take along documentation about what has been done to them. Their cattle always bring a top price.
Other producers may be running 50 - 200 cows, have off farm jobs and use the farm as a tax write off and don't seem really concerned that there are things that they can do to make their calves worth more when they sell them. They tag the cows and calves but keep no records of any kind. They only use the tags to pair up the cows and calves. Some vaccinate and do everything that needs to be done, but their cattle don't sell near the top of the market, and wonder why. Buyers today want the information on the cattle, and will pay a premium for it.
Have found other smalll producers who have hand written records going back 20 years and even longer, and know the genetics and parentage of every animal in their herd.
There are several variations of beef producers and management styles. Some could care less about papers while other keep very detailed records.
Just as SRBeef wrote, he has a bull out of his favorite non-registered cow and sired by a Registered bull. What would be wrong, if he chose to do so, for him to register the bull? Simmental, Gelbvieh, Limousin, Charolais and many of the other Continental breeds offer a grading up program. Angus and Hereford herdbooks are closed. There are even some very progressive producers that are flushing commercial cows.
I spoke to a breeder that said if he had an alternative for EPD's he wouldn't register his bulls, they go to commercial producers and they see the registration papers as toilet paper out in the pasture.
Was at a sale the other day that a bull sold out of a Commercial Simmental cow that was 7/8 simmental and sired by a Reg. Simmental bull. That bull was listed as only being 1/2 simmental, the cows breed didn't count. Spoke to another breeder that has a Purebred Maine Anjou cow and was thinking of breeding her to a bull registered with the Chianina Assoc. that is 1/2 Maine Anjou. The resulting calf, would only be registered as 1/2 Maine Anjou because the sire isn't registered with the Maine Anjou Assoc., which if he was, the calf would be considered 75% Maine Anjou.
The inaccuracies of the breed and genetic makeup by some of the breed associations ultimately affects the EPD calculations for these animals as well.
We are finding that many producers look at the EPD's but really do not understand them. EPD's have been around for many years, are a useful selection tool, but misused as much as they are misunderstood. What EPD's are really important? But that is for another post.
The bottom line, any animal with registration papers and known pedigree should be worth more.
