We sent some cows to town last week. That's the phrase we always used when it came time to cull cows growing up: it was time for those cows to "go to town." Unlike when the proverbial cows come home, these cows won't be returning to production for one reason or another. Culling cows has always been a tough decision for me, as I know it is for many producers in my boots. As the owner of a small herd of registered breeding stock, there are a number of key considerations that go into the decision to cut a cow from the lineup and to send her on to the stock yards or to another breeder.
I'll share some of my thoughts on the process.
My first question is always how important is the cow to my overall herd. This may sound silly, but I assign different values in my mind to each cow in terms of how her genetic profile and production history rank her among her herdmates. This, by the way, is neither as objective or subjective as it may sound, and this "value" may change given the relevant circumstances.
Secondly, I ask why I'm considering culling her in the first place. Reasons we've considered removing a female from inventory this year include problems with joints/feet/mobility, and because a cow was open at our Fall preg-check. Typically culling would revolve loosely around these two primary areas of concern: health, and production. If a cow isn't bred, she isn't productive. If a cow can't walk, or she has developed conditions or tendencies that could deteriorate and erode her value sooner rather than later, we have to consider how long she should remain in the herd.
The challenge comes when these two questions are in conflict. An easy example might be that one of our lead donors didn't flush w ell. Because a key component of our strategy relies on marketing frozen embryos from our top females, this is another consideration that falls in the "production" category. Because of genetic profile and her cost of acquisition (in other words what we paid for her), this cow is likely to be extremely valuable to us in concept. If she becomes unproductive, however, her "real" value is far diminished. Fortunately we didn't make any of those "tough" decisions this year.
Our key cull concerns this year involved a cow with a bad stifle joint dealing with arthritis, and two open recipient females with poor feet. Culling these three females was a relatively easy decision, although the older cow with mobility issues was more difficult to cull because she was a good egg pro ducer. Weighing her genetic profile against her age, and concern that her mobility issues would further erode her cash value at point of sale, we decided it was time for her to move on. Likewise, with two open recipient females, we weren't concerned with genetic merit at all, as they females were purchased specifically to carry eggs from other females. The fact that they were not bred, coupled with concern about the soundness of their feet, made them easy cows to remove from production.
University recommendations on rate of culling will vary, but we culled basically the bottom 12.5% of our herd in 2009. We have retained twice as many heifers, some of which will be of breeding age this season. We'll determine at breeding if these females will stay in the herd, or if they will be marketed as bred females through various seedstock sales around the state this fall.
Culling cows is an important part of effective, active management of the cow herd, and an essential part of a good beef business strategy.
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