Cattle Starter

Tag: culling cows

  • That Cow Needs to Go! – Culling your cattle herd to improve your cattle herd

    Our foundation herd, Winter 2013/2014

    We had lofty dreams when first starting our beef cattle herd, six years ago. Our goal was (and still is, eventually) to grow from 10-head to 100-head of beef cows. Well, we have certainly had growth but we are far from that 100-head goal. There are less cows on the farm right now than we had two years ago. The necessity – the NEED – for culling within the herd has slowed down our growth. But, culling has also improved our cattle herd. The fast track to growth, just for the sake of growth, was not a reality for us. As I have discussed in our last post, we HAD to put emotions aside, and make some serious decisions regarding culling these past years. This has affected our growth. Also, access to additional grazing land has drastically limited our abilities to really grow our herd but that’s for another post.

    What do I mean by culling?

    Simply put, culling means removing cattle from your herd that no longer meet the requirements to stay in the herd. Whatever those requirements are for your operation. Every operation is unique.

    Why is it important to cull?

    We feel that culling is an important and necessary component to any cattle operation. Having a solid foundation of cows that really epitomize what you want in your cattle herd, will most likely require culling along the way. Odds are, there will be cows that no longer meet the goals of your operation. By removing these animals from your herd, you will be able to narrow your focus to breeding the cows that have the bloodlines and genetics that work for YOUR operation.

    Here are OUR reasons for culling within our cattle herd:

    • Open cow. A cow that tests not pregnant during pregnancy checks or does not deliver a calf come calving season, is immediately culled.
    • Stillborn calf. A cow that delivers a stillborn calf is culled from the herd. We have only had this happen once, over six calving seasons.
    • Sickly, newborn calf. A cow that delivers a weak, sickly calf (and despite attempts by us to save, does not thrive and dies), is culled from the herd. We have had this happen two times.
    • Disrespects the fences. A cow that does not respect our fences, is culled from the herd.
    • Size. Some farmers look for big-framed cows, others prefer medium-framed cows and others yet, may not have a size preference. We have had interested buyers comment on a certain cow, saying that she was definitely not a good pick. When in reality, that cow (which was not for sale anyways) was and still is one of our top-performing cows on the farm. Top-performing according to what we consider to be top-performing. We look for a medium-framed cow. Our buyers wanted a big-framed cow. As I mentioned in a past post, we have some big-framed cows on our farm. The first two years of our operation were focused on growing and purchasing cows with good genetics. As such, we added some cows to our herd that were bigger than we would have liked but had good genetics and bloodlines. Those mamas have gone on to deliver and perform for us, year after year. The calves they produce each spring bring us enough of a profit to justify feeding for their larger frames. That being said, this fall, we did trade one of our larger cows, with her calf, for some winter hay (see picture below). Our buyer wanted a bigger cow. We needed hay, and we really would like to start narrowing down our herd to medium-framed cows. So, the trade worked out well. Both parties satisfied.
    Traded this larger-framed cow for winter hay.

    Other Reasons for Culling

    Spring 2014 – Our very first birth EVER, and the calf needed to be pulled. First-calf heifer and a small heifer at that. This heifer has grown into one of our top-performing cows and one we would call calving-ease.
    • Aggression. We really have been fortunate to have mild-mannered cattle. In certain situations, especially during calving and afterwards, we definitely see a shift in personality in our cows. That is normal, though. They have hormones flowing through their bodies and their protective instincts are in HIGH gear. This is short-lived, though. When I talk about culling animals due to aggression, I am talking about animals that charge you when you enter their pasture. Unprovoked, for no reason other than they are bad-mannered, wild cows. We have no place for that on our farm. Fortunately, we have never had to deal with that kind of behavior and hope to never have to. We are very selective in bringing new cattle into our herd. Also, we are selective in which heifers we retain within our herd. While, we have never culled for aggression purposes, we have culled heifers for being too skittish. In fact, we recently sold two yearling heifers that were just a bit too-high strung, both in the pasture and in the cattle handling facility. We could see the writing on the wall with them, and sent them down the road.

    Take Home Point

    Culling is an important and necessary component in herd management. Give this serious consideration. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice growth for herd quality. Growing just for the sake of growing and not culling those bad weeds out of the herd, may not be the best approach to managing your herd. But, as we always say, each operation is unique. This is what WE do. Find what works for YOU.

    Thanks for reading!

  • The Why’s and How’s of Culling Cows

    254If you’re interested in building a cattle herd with a focus on long term profit and sustainability, you need to be culling cows.  Without a disciplined culling strategy in place, under-performing cows will bleed profit out of an operation quick.

    Not familiar with culling?  It’s simply the practice of removing poorly performing animals from your herd.  But even though the idea is simple, the specifics of why and how to cull cows can be complex, and varies from herd to herd and year to year in the cattle business.

    How many animals you should cull each year depends on several factors.  You see, there are a few basic flaws a cow has that guarantee she’ll be a cull, but beyond those few is a multitude of reasons that may or may not be justification for culling.  It all depends on your situation.  Let’s go over the basics.

    Open Cows

    A cow that isn’t pregnant should almost always be culled from your herd.  This is the most basic culling decision, and it probably makes more sense than any other culling criteria.  That’s because an open cow won’t give you a calf, and you’ll still have to feed and keep her until the next breeding season.  A year of cow maintenance cost with no financial return is a no brainer.  Even at rock bottom prices, you just have to send her down the road.

    The only exception to culling open cows is the first-calf heifer.  A heifer that is raising her first calf and still growing herself is under an incredible amount of pressure to perform and rebreeding rates for these animals can be dismally low.  Because they are so young (with a lifetime of productivity ahead of them) and under such pressure to perform, many cattle operations give these first calvers a second chance.  This may be a financially sound decision, but remember that fertility and maintenance demands are heavily tied to genetics, and by giving the girls a second chance you may be lowering the overall genetic quality of your herd.

    Old Cows

    Just like us, cows don’t live forever.  The old ones begin to lose their teeth, eyesight and other crucial things.  That’s why many cattlemen cull old cows.  They don’t want to take the chance that they’ll have to keep a cow that just won’t get it done for one more year.  Culling (or not culling) cows for age can be risky.  When calf prices are high, it’s probably better to take the risk of keeping an old cow because if she performs, the sale of her calf in the fall is well worth it.  In times of low calf prices, the reverse is true, and it’s probably wise to cull these older cows to make room for younger, more productive ones.

    Ornery, Crazy, or Just Plain Difficult Cows

    There are a number of ways a cow can make the cattle operation difficult.  She can be the one that almost kills you each time you try to tag her calf.  She can cause problems by trying to steal other cows’ calves (happened to us).  She might be the one who lags behind during each herd move (we have one of those).  She could have gotten mastitis (us again) and won’t produce enough milk to raise a rigorous calf (we decided to take a chance and keep that cow).  She could learn to disrespect electric fence (our most recent struggle) and cause havoc in your winter hay bale grazing program.

    When deciding to cull these cows with unique difficulties, you need to weigh the financial and emotional costs they incur against the potential money they’ll make you.  Other factors such as how much available feed you have in store and the availability of good replacement cows need to be taken into account as well.

    There’s no doubt that the art of properly culling cows is critical to the long term profitability of a cattle operation.  How many you cull and how strict you are with your culling decisions depends completely on your situation and the economics of the industry at the time.  So what’s a reasonable culling rate?  A wise man once said that if about 10 percent of your herd is culled out each year, you’re probably headed toward long term genetic improvement, which should result in sustainability and economic success.  But that’s a discussion for another day.