Pros and cons of registration????

[mrsnav98]

I was wondering if you all could give me some of the pros and cons of registering our Jerseys? We have the certificate of registration for our milk cow, 100% Jersey, that we just bought; we just need to fill in our names and mail it in. We are also interested in registering our two heifers, not 100% Jersey, about 7/8ths, and our two bull calves, 100% Jersey.

We know that if they are registered they will bring more money, as will their offspring, which we plan to sell, someday. But we've heard "bad things" about registering your animals, i.e. government control. Isn't the AJCA a private association, not run by the government? Or does it matter anymore?

We do want registered Jerseys, especially when it comes time to sell their offspring. But we don't want the government, or anybody for that matter, meddling in our business. Yes, we would follow the guidelines for breeding. But would/could we be harrassed for selling milk? Or harrassed in anyway about the cattle themselves; i.e. feed, medication, vaccinations, etc., NOT having to do with breeding?

We're not looking to provide milk, or cattle, to the mass market. We want the best for our family, and any customers that are so inclined. We want to raise and care for our cattle in the ways we see fit; as natural as possible. When they do have offspring, and it's more cattle than we want, we will start to sell them.

We don't want a feedlot operation. We're not in this for $money, money, money$. We want to be self-sufficient and bless others with all natural food/animals when we have more than we need. We are thinking that IF the cattle are registered, they stand a better chance of going to a really good home. Even if they become hamburger, we don't want them to be treated badly or suffer before it's butchering time.

Thanks in advance.

[MO_cows]

Cattle breed registries are not tied into the government. Most all of them are non profit organizations and they are independent from one another also, as opposed to the AKC which registers a jillion different breeds of dogs. If you have registered stock, I am always in favor of keeping up the registration papers.

For one, because some breeds have a "closed herd book" so you can't "breed up" and get back in later. If the registrations are let go on a herd, they are gone forever and those blood lines are lost.

Think about this - when you register an animal, basically you are having a mini audit done of your internal herd records. I have seen many, many breeder record keeping mistakes brought to light by the checks and balances in place at the breed association. So that is part of the reason registration papers add value, there is an extra layer of verification done on the information they contain.

Most breeds put valuable information on their registration certificates, such as individual observations of the subject animal and its ancestors for weights, milk production and other financially significant traits. Some breeds also have EPD, EBV and other predictions of performance of offspring, which are based on the database for the entire population of the breed and done using the latest and greatest in computer analysis.

Another reason why I think registered is preferable to unregistered is that the person has paid a membership fee and really made a commitment to their breed when they raise registered stock. Unregistered stock, they could be raising Jersey's this week and Brahma the next. When you do the extra work and pay the extra money to register what you raise, you would have to think there is a commitment to quality that goes along with it.

Sorry to go so long, but this is something I really feel strongly about. Yes, I know, there is a lot of perfectly good commercial livestock out there in the world who don't have papers. But in this case, why give up the registrations??

[sammyd]

there is no gov't control with a registry. They have no say nor do they care how you raise the animals. However the go'vt does have certain things to say about how you sell your milk and they vary by state.
Registration may or may not bring more money when you sell.
A lot depends on the pedigree and your reputation and how the animal looks.
I've milked more than a few registered animals that were bottom of the barrel cows and not worth any more than anything else.

I wouldn't bother with anything not 100% or male unless they had a very superior pedigree.

[mrsnav98]

Thank you. You two have been very helpful. We used to breed dogs so we have experience with AKC registration and pedigrees. Even though we didn't breed our last bitch, we still wanted her to be registered and have her pedigree, just to make sure she was a good dog; and she's perfect. So we think we'll do the same with our cattle.

We're most interested in POLLED cattle, and a very docile temperment. The reason we choose the milk cow we did is BECAUSE she's 100% Jersey, a beautiful blond w/no spots or markings, polled, and extremely well behaved. You can walk right up to her and milk her where ever she's standing. Thankfully she just comes into the barn, though. She's also an excellent mother, even with her "adopted" children.

The day we brought her home, she let all of our children lay on her in the barnyard. She's great. And that's what we want to breed, great cattle with great temperments. We don't want skittish cattle. You can pet all of our cattle like dogs. We were told that wasn't possible; "cattle aren't like dogs." Our's are!

Can either of you tell us what the specifics are that we need to look for as far as breeding for polled cattle? We've been told it's complicated.