Culling Old Cows

[TheBullLady]

Just curious. For those of you that actually keep your cows past their "prime"! When you finally cull because they don't get bred back, do you find it's because they are no longer cycling, or cycling and not sticking?

 

[Beefy]

mine are still cycling. they just cant raise a calf AND breed back. i think its more nutritional than anything else. we have two retired pet cows that still calve every other year.

 

[Dee]

Just pregged the old cows last week. Oldest one that is bred out there is a '91 model. Still looks pretty good as far as body condition also. Can only see the last rib if you really look, but the hip bones stick out a bit. Most of them I see the bull riding, but at preg check time they come up open. It seems the thinner ones are the opens also.

 

[sidney411]

Coulndn't say for sure, most that get culled are due to other problems. The only old open cow I've sold was due to uterine infection and she couldn't settle because of the infection. I could of got her fixed up but I didn't want to over winter her being that she was open when we weaned her calf.

 

[tcollins]

Seems like the ideal thing to do is to cull the older cows as it makes little if any financial sense to feed through the winter. Although I'm not so sure that the best price can be garnered for a cull cow now; feeding it through the winter months is not going to help matters either. It's a bit of a challenge for me to convince my business partner to get anything out of the pasture and to the market. Guess it all depends on whether one is raising cattle for income or for a tax write off.

 

[Victoria]

The old ones that we cull can usually cycle they just don't get pregnant. We've got a lot of old cows though. Two 15 year olds, two 14 year olds, a bunch over 10 - all preg tested positive for next year. We find no reason to ship just because of age. If they are getting pregnant, looking good, and raising big calves why ship them out??? Especially when they aren't worth anything to ship.

 

[Susie David]

When they cycle and don't settle or quit cycling all together they are gone at weaning. O'l one eyed boss cow wears a '92 ear tag settled just fine and weaned a 600 plus heifer. As long as she keeps producing she gets to live on this farm.
DMc

 

[Bama]

I cull at the point where I can replace her with another cow that will cost less to feed through the winter. Part of the equation is the one being culled is a proven, the one replacing her is is a unknown. For that reason I will keep one slightly longer. Once the feed bill outweighs this advantage I dump her.