registered vs. commercial cattle

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While I am asking questions, I thought i would ask you guys this question. what do you prefer reg. or comm. I have both and it to me is a toss up. I sell my registered brangus females and bulls for 2-3 times what my commercial cattle sell for but I also have to number crunch which bull to what cow EPDs and Ai, extra time registering,promoting but when you match up the right cow and bull you can really hit a home run. the other side is I don't do anything but vaccinate my commercial cattle and bred them to a LBW bull. I am trying to get into one or the other full time and drop one side. any suggestions welcome. thanks
 
Seems like with what you said, you are doing pretty well with the registered herd. Keep like that and if something happens, you can always trade the bull for another breed and go back to crossing, but hopefully with some great females.
 
PLB cattle":3knv1a16 said:
While I am asking questions, I thought i would ask you guys this question. what do you prefer reg. or comm. I have both and it to me is a toss up. I sell my registered brangus females and bulls for 2-3 times what my commercial cattle sell for but I also have to number crunch which bull to what cow EPDs and Ai, extra time registering,promoting but when you match up the right cow and bull you can really hit a home run. the other side is I don't do anything but vaccinate my commercial cattle and bred them to a LBW bull. I am trying to get into one or the other full time and drop one side. any suggestions welcome. thanks

Just an opinion, but if you are only wanting to do one, commercial seems like a betteer alternative. Simpler record keeping without the additional costs of registration.
But, the bull selection for commercial shoudl be just as intense as that for a registerd herd. No matter how succesfull your registered herd, you will alwasy have cattle to market as commercial. Even though your registered stuff sells for more then your commercial, typically your commercial sales would be your bread and butter. While the majority of our base cows/heifers are registered or could be registered, we still treat them as commercial in marketing, but breeding they're bred as purebred registered stuff. Works for us

dun
 
PLB cattle":3i4p5ygn said:
While I am asking questions, I thought i would ask you guys this question. what do you prefer reg. or comm. I have both and it to me is a toss up. I sell my registered brangus females and bulls for 2-3 times what my commercial cattle sell for but I also have to number crunch which bull to what cow EPDs and Ai, extra time registering,promoting but when you match up the right cow and bull you can really hit a home run. the other side is I don't do anything but vaccinate my commercial cattle and bred them to a LBW bull. I am trying to get into one or the other full time and drop one side. any suggestions welcome. thanks

Go with your gut feeling...what you enjoy! We do registered LH stock and breed by NS and A.I. as well as chase pedigrees and all that stuff. The cost of registering an animal (assuming sire and dam are already registered) is a VERY SMALL $$ AMOUNT...only $15. per animal if done before it is 1 yr old. Also, a registered animal eats the same as a non-registered one; however, registered bring more $$. You can always NOT register your "low end" stock and the bull or heifer calf that doesn't fit your program as a commercial animal and keep your very best for breeding stock to sell at Private Treaty.
 
Tim Ohlde sells Angus II all the time at his sales they are really just commercial animals with registered father or dams. He also keep some commercial stuff for ET programs. I would evaluate which side of your buisiness really bring home the dough and stick with that one even if it is a little more work.
 
Here's my two cents. I run a registered herd of Texas Longhorns and a commercial herd of registered and unregistered Brangus. I enjoy the commercial herd because they are easier to work with in producing quality cattle that are in demand with the buyers. If I get too many cows, I take some to a sale and I'm done. If I need a few more, I look to several breeders at their production sales. I have a couple of registered Brangus cows but I don't promote them that way. I enjoy my registered longhorn herd but it does take more work for me to get a marketable product. Some of this is due to the fact that the Longhorn market is only so big. As it was mentioned before, it takes more time matching the right bull with the right cows and then marketing and promoting your product takes more time and money. Promoting your herd, regardless of the breed, takes a lot more time and money than a commercial herd.

I like them both, and that is why I do both. They are rewarding in very different ways. If I had to choose between the two, I'd do the commercial herd. It is less risky to make money this way. If you are not producing the home run animals as described earlier, a registered herd can be more than twice the cost with no more in return than your commercial herd.
 

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