RANCHING Business
What to Do With Cull Cows and When By Ellen H. Brisendine
T
AKE A LOOK AT HISTORIC MARKET RESULTS FOR SEVERAL years and you’ll start to discern the seasonal pat- terns in pricing. According to Dr. Derrell Peel,
Oklahoma State University Extension livestock mar- ket economist, “Cull cows have the most pronounced seasonal price pattern of any class of cattle and that’s because everybody tends to do the same thing. “We wean the calves, preg check the cows and the
ones we’re going to cull, and we all typically dump them at the same time,” he says. “That happens to be around November, so ’November lows’ are, by a strong margin, the lows of the year.” What if a rancher was willing to hold onto that
cow for several weeks past the November lows? Peel answers this question with a discussion of some of the risks, benefi ts, timing, and management consid- erations.
Timing “There is a very strong tendency for (cull cow)
prices to rise after November — some in December and January, but particularly by February and March. They actually don’t peak until May,” he says. Peel says a cull cow is very likely to bring about 16 percent more when sold in February instead of November. The rancher, then, has to determine if the cost of
feed from November to February is less than that pos- sible 16 percent price gain. “If she is thin and you do keep her, she’ll put some
weight back on with a moderate amount of feed; once you wean her calf. She’ll pick up 100 to 150 pounds depending on how you feed her and for how long. So you’ll have more pounds that will bring more money if you keep her for 60 to 90 days. Of course, this depends on when you do your culling.” For the price of some hay or feed, holding a cull cow
provides opportunities to make more money — more pounds to sell at a better price, and one ad- ditional benefi t, Peel ex- plains. “That same thin cow, if she does put on 100 pounds of weight, she will probably pick up a body condition score. She’ll be treated as a higher dressing percent cow, and she’ll bring a bit more of a pre- mium over an average dressing cow or a thin cow. So there are really 3 ways you can make money by holding those cull cows,” he says, adding a caveat. “Now, it doesn’t work every year, but this concept is probably the closest thing to a home run there is in the cattle industry.”
Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock market economist
Give her a little supplement
and she’ll put on some weight once you get that calf off her.
What will it cost to hold that cull cow? “Cull cows are not very effi cient at putting on weight.
Their feed conversion is pretty poor. It’s easy to spend a lot of money on feed to put the weight on and that’s where you want to be careful,” Peel says. “If a guy’s got some leftover hay, probably not the
best quality stuff and not getting any fresher, feeding it to cull cows might be a really good way to use up
76 The Cattleman August 2015
thecattlemanmagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116