Culling your older Cattle

[tdarden3k]

Just wanted to ask if you guys use a particular formula for culling your older cows. Is it strictly age or when body weight starts falling off, or teeth or ??????
Here in Tx I have seen cattlemen asking 1800-2000 for 8-10 year old pairs and I am sorry but to me the numbers do not compute ,,

Isn't this about the time you start thinking replacement "seriously".

What works for you ?

 

[bigbull338]

culling age/time depends on the person.some cull bad tempered cows asap.then some cull cows when they dont wean a calf.also cull when a cow doesnt breed back bad baggs an teats.some cull when they get 10yrs old because they dont want to deal with sick cows.

 

[tdarden3k]

culling age/time depends on the person.some cull bad tempered cows asap.then some cull cows when they dont wean a calf.also cull when a cow doesnt breed back bad baggs an teats.some cull when they get 10yrs old because they dont want to deal with sick cows.

Thanks .... more specifically I should have said culling for reasons of age ?

 

[highgrit]

I cull on the cows production. If she doesn't breed back in 10 weeks or less she's gone.

 

[John SD]

As mentioned above, I would cull based on infertility, physical defects, and bad temperment, in that order.

After meeting those criteria, I would send a cow down the road after age 12 regardless. I base that on having quite a few cows coming out of the winter of '96-'97. After surviving that ordeal, some of my now coming 13 yr old cows simply laid down and gave it up. Most after calving, some before.

I have had cows reliably go to 16 or 17 in the past while still bringing in a decent calf in the fall, but those are exceptions to the rule, and the odds are stacked against them.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[tdarden3k]

As mentioned above, I would cull based on infertility, physical defects, and bad temperment, in that order.

After meeting those criteria, I would send a cow down the road after age 12 regardless. I base that on having quite a few cows coming out of the winter of '96-'97. After surviving that ordeal, some of my now coming 13 yr old cows simply laid down and gave it up. Most after calving, some before.

I have had cows reliably go to 16 or 17 in the past while still bringing in a decent calf in the fall, but those are exceptions to the rule, and the odds are stacked against them.

Your mileage may vary.

John are you in South Dakota ?

 

[snake67]

This topic has been beat to death on this forum - I bet a search would turn up thousands of comments on this topic.

And no one agrees - but what the he[[ - I will throw in for the he[[ of it.

I have been raising cattle for more than 50 years and I always have a few in their late teens in the herd. Even had a few hit their twenties over the past few years.

It all boils down to what they do for you.

Older cows are easier to handle, know your routine, can find their way around the land without a problem and always make good mothers - other wise they are gone.

Breed for longevity and you will never go wrong.

I bet there are at least 10 or 12 out back right now that are over 15 - all of them have good bags, good feet, good teeth, all wintered well on starvation rations this year, all calved unassisted and all are excellent mothers and not a one of them causes me any grief.

Mind you - not a one of them is the worshipped black angus - they are all (look out!) Horned Herefords - and they all have their horns! LOL

Do as you like but anyone in the know will agree - and I will repeat myself - "Breed for longevity and you will never go wrong."

I will take a group of 100 solid bred cows over 10 years old before I will take the same size group of bred heifers - any day.

I will admit that there is one old girl out back - in pretty good shape that is about 16 or so - she came up open this year - and yeah - we are going to eat her. Going to let her finish out the summer on grass and then shoot her for meat.

She will be just fine in the pot. Lots of you folks will shake your head at that but older cows often taste just fine - after all those old dairy cows do not all get turned into dog food - lots of them go into steak.

Best to all

Bez

 

[Bigfoot]

And yet another train of thought is sell them all at 9 or 10 years old. Keep several heifers every year. You'll always top the market with your cull cows. You'll always have a good herd of young cows.

 

[tdarden3k]

This topic has been beat to death on this forum - I bet a search would turn up thousands of comments on this topic.

And no one agrees - but what the he[[ - I will throw in for the he[[ of it.

I have been raising cattle for more than 50 years and I always have a few in their late teens in the herd. Even had a few hit their twenties over the past few years.

It all boils down to what they do for you.

Older cows are easier to handle, know your routine, can find their way around the land without a problem and always make good mothers - other wise they are gone.

Breed for longevity and you will never go wrong.

I bet there are at least 10 or 12 out back right now that are over 15 - all of them have good bags, good feet, good teeth, all wintered well on starvation rations this year, all calved unassisted and all are excellent mothers and not a one of them causes me any grief.

Mind you - not a one of them is the worshipped black angus - they are all (look out!) Horned Herefords - and they all have their horns! LOL

Do as you like but anyone in the know will agree - and I will repeat myself - "Breed for longevity and you will never go wrong."

I will take a group of 100 solid bred cows over 10 years old before I will take the same size group of bred heifers - any day.

I will admit that there is one old girl out back - in pretty good shape that is about 16 or so - she came up open this year - and yeah - we are going to eat her. Going to let her finish out the summer on grass and then shoot her for meat.

She will be just fine in the pot. Lots of you folks will shake your head at that but older cows often taste just fine - after all those old dairy cows do not all get turned into dog food - lots of them go into steak.

Best to all

Bez

Bez,
Breeding for Longevity ? Can you touch on that a little bit ?

 

[greybeard]

This topic has been beat to death on this forum - I bet a search would turn up thousands of comments on this topic.




Mind you - not a one of them is the worshipped black angus - they are all (look out!) Horned Herefords - and they all have their horns! LOL


Best to all

Bez

:lol: :lol: :lol: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[dun]

We gnerally don;t have very bad winters so we don;t worry about age/teeth until they wean a substandard calf or come up open. Even at 27 as skinny as Granny was she still bred back, but we put her down over the winter cause she was making a hard time out of it.

 

[randiliana]

We watch their production, carefully. Since I have pretty in depth records and we weigh all the calves at birth and at weaning that makes the decisions easier. If a calf is a lot lighter than the rest of the herd and of her past calves we will cull her out. If the WW is way down we will cull her out. Of course, this is assuming that she breeds back, has a good udder and has passed all the other normal reasons for culling. Right now we have 2 14 year old girls that are on their last calf, and had one we had to do an emergency C-section on when she went down on us. They are in a 'dry' (no bull) pasture for the summer and we will probably wean them in late July and sell them. We also have another 10 head that are over 10 years old. They will all go out to be bred, we will see how many of them breed back and who raises a good calf again.

 

[double v]

Production, Age , condition usally they add up in keeping or shipping doesn't matter on breed. Dollars matter and how many are willing to watse a year looking at poor production? keep the good one's ship the under achiever's. :bday:

 

[Aaron]

I'll start with the most common factor and end with the least common.

- Being open (unless they are young and exceptional, in which case they get a 2nd chance, but never a 3rd)
- Big teats/udders - if they need help getting a calf to suck or get mastitis, gone.
- Poor calf performance
- Bad feet
- The odd pulled hip, lump or eye that could have the start of cancer.
- Anything that has a history of prolapses of any sort.

Age is never a consideration. If they have no major problems, keep their flesh and raise a good calf - I'll keep them till they're just about dead. I put a lot of credit in buying bulls that have some longevity in their pedigrees. Young cow herds don't impress me - only make me skeptical.

 

[tdarden3k]

I'll start with the most common factor and end with the least common.

- Being open (unless they are young and exceptional, in which case they get a 2nd chance, but never a 3rd)
- Big teats/udders - if they need help getting a calf to suck or get mastitis, gone.
- Poor calf performance
- Bad feet
- The odd pulled hip, lump or eye that could have the start of cancer.
- Anything that has a history of prolapses of any sort.

Age is never a consideration. If they have no major problems, keep their flesh and raise a good calf - I'll keep them till they're just about dead. I put a lot of credit in buying bulls that have some longevity in their pedigrees. Young cow herds don't impress me - only make me skeptical.

Thanks
I will probably steal your philosophy and make it mine. I like it .

 

[3MR]

We only cull, crazies, hard keepers and non preformers regardless of age. If they give a healthy calf every year they can die here of old age.