How you cull cows can affect your herd’s bottom line.

There’s an old adage in beef cow country: a cow needs to produce a paycheck every year, either out of a calf or out of her own hide.

At some point, every cow will be culled from the herd—or die—and the one-time salvage value of a cow is important in determining her profitability. Salvage value is influenced by the age and body condition of the cull cow, as well as the seasonal supply. A big share of cull cows come to market during October and November, after spring calves are weaned and cows are pregnancy checked. Producers who sell during this period are virtually guaranteed to hit the bottom of the market.

“For cattlemen who didn’t do it earlier, it’s not too late to preg-check cows and decide which ones to get rid of,” said Eldon Cole, University of Missouri extension livestock specialist. “In a herd that calves in February, the winter feeding of stored feed [hay] can amount to two-thirds of a cow’s annual cost. With so-so grass hay costing $35 to $40 per big round bale, it’s not very profitable to feed an open cow through winter.”

Pregnancy testing typically costs $2 to $4 per cow, depending on the number checked and how many other chores the veterinarian has in the area. For cows that check open, a producer has several options.

“If you’re calving in two seasons, spring and fall, you can make fall calvers out of open spring calvers,” said Cole. “Or, if the cow is open and otherwise healthy, you can breed her and sell her next spring or summer as a bred cow—a cow that is carrying a calf will make some money. Or, you can feed them awhile, put some weight on them and then sell them.

“One drawback—most cattlemen are not set up to feed cows on the place,” said Cole. “And there aren’t many places to sell them nearby.”

(Note: West Missouri Beef, at Rockville, Mo., buys cull cows of “all sizes, shapes and kinds, as long as they can walk.” West Missouri Beef’s telephone: (660) 598-2045.)

Last year, O.D. and Glenn Cope and Rod Lewis (Barry and Lawrence County, Mo., cattlemen) shipped a potload of open cows and heifers to a custom feedlot in Iowa. Their goal was to put on low-cost gains, upgrade the beef quality and sell on a better market than in the fall. The cows came off feed in mid-February 2006.

“I weighed my cows here and plugged in a value for them,” said O.D. Cope. “We wanted to feed the cows long enough—65 to 70 days—so that the yellowish grass fat coloration would turn white.”

Those “Premium White” cows usually produce a carcass that is more desirable by the packer, with premiums paid for them, compared with cows coming off grass. But in February 2006, a shortage of lean cull cows restricted how much premium white-fat cows earned.

“It was about a wash,” Cope said of his Iowa feeding experience. “We re-paid our trucking bill, but didn’t earn much profit over selling the cows directly after calves were weaned. One good thing—it pushed some income into the next year.”

Three cows out of the bunch didn’t make it all the way to the end of the feeding period:
One cow died of pneumonia.

Another suffered a hip injury and was sold early.

A third cow calved in the feedlot (Oops!) and was sold as a cow-calf pair.

Five of the open heifers in the group were youthful enough to grade USDA Choice after 90 days on feed.

The Copes split their herd into spring- and fall-calving units and sell calves from both groups through the MFA Health Track Beef Alliance.

“We aren’t feeding any cows this winter,” said Cope. “I have some older cows that are good candidates for culling, but they are carrying calves, so I kept them in the herd.”

“If you do decide to feed your cull cows, there are some types of individuals that probably should be driven past the feed bunk and directly onto the truck to market,” said Eldon Cole.

“Don’t feed cows that are too old, too thin, too pregnant and probably too crazy,” he said. “Iowa State University folks scored each of the Cope and Lewis cows for disposition, and there was a lower daily gain for those cows with poor dispositions.”


Winter feeding of beef cows
Underfeeding animals is not a sound strategy. “It is too difficult to make up for an extended period of underfeeding,” said MFA nutritionist, Dr. Jim White. “The prognosis for success is usually better when staying ahead of the curve in feeding cows,” he added. White went on to offer the following tips to boost feeding efficiency and help cows push through winter on limited forage:

Test stored forages
Forages should be tested for at least protein and fiber. The fiber content largely determines the energy in the forages. Most cereal grain silages are high in energy and adequate protein. Corn silage will need the most protein supplementation. Grass hay cut before heading will usually be adequate, but after-seed hay or stockpiled forage usually requires both energy and protein supplementation, as will corn or sorghum stover. If you don’t test your forages, you can’t know what needs to be supplemented. Your nearby MFA livestock sales manager can help you sample feed for testing and recommend the most useful tests.

Treat for parasites
Parasites create a substantial nutrient demand in animals. Years ago, it was a fairly common position in the Northern Great Plains to argue against worming stock cows, because worming cows did not improve calf crop. There are studies that substantiate that. Worming cows won’t increase calf crop, but worming cows reduces feed costs by making cows more efficient with feed intake.

Evaluate feed inventory
A quick quiz can help you with this. How many pounds of cattle live weight do you have for every ton of feed on farm? In most years, a wintering beef cow easily will go through twice her body weight in a winter feeding program.

Evaluate cow body condition
It is less costly to maintain cows at a body score 5 or 6, than it is to try to get cows scoring under 4 to be at a BCS of 6 during the winter feeding period. It certainly can be done, but it takes more pounds of feed to get them from 4 to 6 than it does to keep them at 5.

Establish different feeding groups based on objectives
The only point of grouping cows is to allow for different management practices to be implemented. In most feeding situations, a cow’s ability to get feed is related to her ability to push and shove. Smaller, weaker cows or heifers do not fare well against their more aggressive friends. In cases when you need to restrict feed, you often will see bigger cows getting along fine and weaker cows falling behind. Separating the smaller heifers and weaker cows reduces the likelihood that they will fall behind. Make sure you can adequately supplement the first-calf heifers for 2 months before they calve; it’s a critical time.
If you have a spring-calving herd, adjust rations to provide more energy and protein as calving approaches. During the third trimester of gestation, the calf will gain two-thirds of its bodyweight, which increases the cow’s nutrient demand. At calving, the cow coming into milk substantially increases her nutrient requirements. During early spring/late winter calving, the weather is sometimes uncooperative. Cold, wet and muddy conditions also increase the animal’s requirements. At the start of the last trimester, the cows should be body condition scored. If cows are below a body score 5, start supplementing them at this time with cubes of Cattle Charge. If cows are a 6 score, then start increasing their supplement 30 days prior to calving.

Feed balanced rations
Nutrient deficiencies can have a prolonged and substantial effect on the cow herd. Energy and protein shortages are frequently manifested in cows nursing their first calf when these young cows fail to re-breed in a timely fashion.

Provide cover
Reduce nutrient-burning environmental stress by providing cover, windbreaks or bedding.With a heavy, dry winter coat, a cow in good flesh will not expend extra energy to stay warm until temperatures get down to 18 to 19 degrees. The lowest effective temperature that an animal will not need to expend additional energy to stay warm is called “the critical lower temperature.” If the coat is wet, that number goes from 19 degrees to 60 degrees. For every degree lower than the critical lower temperature, the animal’s feed requirement increases by 1 percent. If the hide is wet, the increased requirement is even greater. At temperatures under 10 degrees, feed digestibility declines. Providing shelter will reduce the environmental stress and subsequent increase in energy requirement for wintering cattle.