How old do you call old?

[JHH]

How old do you call old for a cow.

All the discussions on hooks to pins ect. Got me thinking.

How old is your average cow herd?

Seems like if the angus guys get 10 yrs here they are culling them out. I have had a few herfs never miss that were 20 + yrs old.

 

[salebarn junkie]

As long as they have good teeth and good uders i dont worry about age

 

[AllForage]

Gotta keep the turnover myth going in order to sell more wonder "genetics"

 

[ABrauny]

Why on earth would anyone cull 10 ten year old cows with good teeth and god udders? Those cows are more likely to be making someone money.

 

[JHH]

Why on earth would anyone cull 10 ten year old cows with good teeth and god udders? Those cows are more likely to be making someone money.

Who said they had good udders and teeth? Just saying that the ones I am talking about have udders like a milk cow and rarely hold up on fescue pasture. This drought we had sure showed the type that can survive. And the tall big frame cows that milk to hard dont cut it. Not talking just angus but any of that type.

 

[SRBeef]

If a cow has a problem they should have been culled much earlier. After a couple successful unassisted calves that are close to or exceed 50% of the cow's weight at weaning, as far as I am concerned a cow can stay until she turns up open in the fall at preg check.

If they are open at preg check they get shipped to the slaughter sale the next day. Until then they have a home. Their job is to successfully birth and raise a calf to weaning. If they do their job, I will do my job and make sure they have a home. I don't care how old, or young, they are. It costs too much to maintain a cow for a year to do otherwise.

Even if they are less than ideal cows as in too short a hook to pin, etc. If they can have a calf every year above 50% of their wt then they can stay. I just want to be careful not to retain heifers nor bulls from anything but the best. They will still make calves that provide good steaks and burger. And they are paid for.

I'm raising beef, not breeding stock.

Jim

 

[JHH]

If a cow has a problem they should have been culled much earlier. After a couple successful unassisted calves that are close to or exceed 50% of the cow's weight at weaning, as far as I am concerned a cow can stay until she turns up open in the fall at preg check.

If they are open at preg check they get shipped to the slaughter sale the next day. Until then they have a home. Their job is to successfully birth and raise a calf to weaning. If they do their job, I will do my job and make sure they have a home. I don't care how old, or young, they are. It costs too much to maintain a cow for a year to do otherwise.

Even if they are less than ideal cows as in too short a hook to pin, etc. If they can have a calf every year above 50% of their wt then they can stay. I just want to be careful not to retain heifers nor bulls from anything but the best. They will still make calves that provide good steaks and burger. And they are paid for.

I'm raising beef, not breeding stock.

Jim

I agree with you Jim. I guess what I was trying to get out of someone was this. You can still have a productive cow at 10 or even 12 with less than desirable traits. Therefore how old before those less than desireable traits show up like bad feet, poor udders, ect. I have seen less than perfect udders be very functional at 12 yrs old. As long as the calf can get hooked on and she raises it I guess I let them stay. But in the same token I wouldnt keep a daughter in a registered herd out of a coke bottle teat cow. As for bad feet, Have seen several bulls with foundered hooves still breeding at 10 . In the same token i have seen very few Angus bulls that are 10 yrs old. But I think it is the area I am in.

I think these farmers are spoiled and just use a different bull every 4 or 5 yrs and ship the old one off.

 

[bse]

i try and cull 10% per year so supposedly i shouldnt have anything over 10 years old but in doing that i have some that are 14 and some dont make it to 5. i only have 30 momma cows some purebred and some commercial i only retain purebred heifers for now to replace my 10%.
Alot of purebred breeders sell there cows at 6 or 7 years old while they still have some value to them.
Most folks around here sell the bulls after 3 years because they retain daugters and dont want there sires breeding them although i suppose they could get the very best doing that or very worst.

 

[ABrauny]

Why on earth would anyone cull 10 ten year old cows with good teeth and god udders? Those cows are more likely to be making someone money.

Who said they had good udders and teeth? Just saying that the ones I am talking about have udders like a milk cow and rarely hold up on fescue pasture. This drought we had sure showed the type that can survive. And the tall big frame cows that milk to hard dont cut it. Not talking just angus but any of that type.

Sorry JHH, I was getting carried away, I didn't read your post carefully enough. :bang:

 

[Black and Good]

How old do you call old for a cow.

All the discussions on hooks to pins ect. Got me thinking.

How old is your average cow herd?

Seems like if the angus guys get 10 yrs here they are culling them out. I have had a few herfs never miss that were 20 + yrs old.

To me it's market dependent. In this strong slaughter market the older cows are bringing good money. So I think we cull harder and younger in these times than when the slaughter prices are lower. JMO B&G

 

[ALACOWMAN]

If a cow has a problem they should have been culled much earlier. After a couple successful unassisted calves that are close to or exceed 50% of the cow's weight at weaning, as far as I am concerned a cow can stay until she turns up open in the fall at preg check.

If they are open at preg check they get shipped to the slaughter sale the next day. Until then they have a home. Their job is to successfully birth and raise a calf to weaning. If they do their job, I will do my job and make sure they have a home. I don't care how old, or young, they are. It costs too much to maintain a cow for a year to do otherwise.

Even if they are less than ideal cows as in too short a hook to pin, etc. If they can have a calf every year above 50% of their wt then they can stay. I just want to be careful not to retain heifers nor bulls from anything but the best. They will still make calves that provide good steaks and burger. And they are paid for.

I'm raising beef, not breeding stock.

Jim

I agree with you Jim. I guess what I was trying to get out of someone was this. You can still have a productive cow at 10 or even 12 with less than desirable traits. Therefore how old before those less than desireable traits show up like bad feet, poor udders, ect. I have seen less than perfect udders be very functional at 12 yrs old. As long as the calf can get hooked on and she raises it I guess I let them stay. But in the same token I wouldnt keep a daughter in a registered herd out of a coke bottle teat cow. As for bad feet, Have seen several bulls with foundered hooves still breeding at 10 . In the same token i have seen very few Angus bulls that are 10 yrs old. But I think it is the area I am in.

I think these farmers are spoiled and just use a different bull every 4 or 5 yrs and ship the old one off.

hope so,, cause i got a few that are 16 to 18 years old....

 

[BRG]

We have some older cows here, 12 or so, but here is what we do. Every spring/summer we go through the cows and pick 60 to 70 head of cows, no matter the age, that are a bit harder keeping, tipped bag, etc that I don't think we should be raising seed stock out out of, but are still dang good cows. We take these girls and sell them as commercial bred cows in December. We also take the oldest cows and sell them as short term cows, as the way we run them over the winter can be a bit tough on them, as we make them graze winter grass. Most years their is a snow cover and they need to dig for it (not so much this winter). I would rather sell a good short term cow than have an older cow struggle.

 

[Aaron]

How old do you call old for a cow.

All the discussions on hooks to pins ect. Got me thinking.

How old is your average cow herd?

Seems like if the angus guys get 10 yrs here they are culling them out. I have had a few herfs never miss that were 20 + yrs old.

This was a topic of conversation on another site I am on about a year ago. I crunched the numbers and the average age of my culls is 7.5 to 9.25 years of ago.

But I say anything that makes it past 12-13 is old. A cow can't be claimed as exceptional until she is at least 10 years of age.

A lot of guys brag about the young age of their cowherds (heck I was talking to a guy yesterday that said his cows were TOO OLD), but I also notice a pattern of where their REAL INCOME comes from. The guys that I know that make a living off cows want them to live well into their teens (when they actually are making money for the commercial man) and don't require to keep back such a large amount of replacements.

 

[SRBeef]

I personally am still in herd building mode. Once I get to my target herd size then I will start culling females more aggressively.

However at that time I am going to cull based on the ratio of calf weaning weight to cow weight at weaning. I will not be culling based on cow age. The two criteria may be related but what I am looking for is a productive cow regardless of age.

Jim

 

[denvermartinfarms]

My average age would be about 7, but i have some older. I also have some 9 year old cows that you could not tell from a 3 or a 4 year old, so right now i can't even imagine how long i may have them around.

 

[plumber_greg]

I like a young herd. If I can sell a 7 or 8 year old cow, and replace her with what I believe is a superior heifer, why would I keep one till she is in her teens. A 7 year old sells really good, way better than a 15 year old canner. She brings me more than the heifer would if sold for feeder price, and hopefully the heifer makes a better cow than the one she replaced.
I know heifers are a gamble, but with careful breeding the odds favor me, as I just don't keep any old heifer.
Aaron, it sounds like our average age of culls is about the same. However, are you culling for problems, or culling to get new blood in the cowherd. I guess I'm calling the ones I sell as culls, but it's really hard to cull the better ones and replace with a heifer that may or may not perform as well as her.
I may do it wrong, maybe I should always be culling the bottom end, regardless of age, and just cull on production. But, what am I gonna' replace them with if I don't have better heifers out of the top end to add to the herd. gs

 

[Aaron]

Greg,

Culling hard for any issues that may arise. When I did the list, I noted the reason why, but I can't find that post anymore on that site.

Majority are due to udder issues, coming open, abortions, calf died before weaning, etc. The odd cancer eye, buggered shoulder, pulled hip are also issues. But this was over about 40 cows over a 10 year period.

Poor calf performance was an issue at one time, but I nip that in the bud on the first calf, so I generally don't have that as an issue anymore.

When a cow starts producing runts, you know she is done. But I have yet to hit an 'age' where that becomes a problem. The oldest cow in the herd is 14 this year and her 2012 5-month old steer calf weaned off at 506 lbs. and sold with the rest of the steers for $880, so I can't complain. Now she has come up with mastitis in one front quarter this winter, so I don't know what her future holds. But out of 40+ cows in the commercial herd, I can trace her back on over 20 of them. Longevity is an important trait for me.

 

[Rosielou]

Usually I lurk around and stay out of things, but we've had 15+ yr olds that still raise calves as good as the 4-5 yr olds. Health declined 17+ with them(udder, etc) so we shipped then, though we've had an atleast 20+ with no arising health issues still pumping calves out steady until we finally just decided to replace her before she killed over or something. Now the oldest we have is around 15, though she's getting shipped once she weans this year's calf. Don't think we've ever shipped a cow based on health unless she wasn't keeping her worth each year with calves. Then again, we don't raise for anything other than extra income and hobby anymore. Just my :2cents:

 

[Chris H]

Right now, average age is just under 4. We did some heavy culling a few years ago, and I've been trying(unsuccessfully!) to cut the herd size down over the last couple years. This year after culling several for various reasons I kept 3 11 year olds, a couple 8 year olds, a couple 6 year olds, a couple 4 year olds, and most of the 3's & 2's. I sold a lot of 4 through 10 year olds back to the farm as bred cows.
My plan is to retain & calve most of the heifers, and cull as needed after 1st calving. I plan to sell most after calving as 4 year olds. I'll let some of the top cows remain as long as possible. The 4 year olds have been the easiest to sell, and I'll have had a couple calves from them to see how they perform. Odds are, most will have had at least 1 heifer to continue those genetics.
The downside to this plan, it's hard to sell a fine looking 4 year old!

 

[Stocker Steve]

This was a topic of conversation on another site I am on about a year ago. I crunched the numbers and the average age of my culls is 7.5 to 9.25 years of ago. But I say anything that makes it past 12-13 is old. A cow can't be claimed as exceptional until she is at least 10 years of age.

A lot of guys brag about the young age of their cowherds (heck I was talking to a guy yesterday that said his cows were TOO OLD), but I also notice a pattern of where their REAL INCOME comes from. The guys that I know that make a living off cows want them to live well into their teens (when they actually are making money for the commercial man) and don't require to keep back such a large amount of replacements.

What percent of your heifers do you retain for your replacements Aaron?

Do you sell bred heifers? (dairy guys with low cull rates used to make good $ selling springers but sexed semen and high feed prices changed that)