Typically when it comes to selling a cull most producers don’t give it much thought. They just take it to the auction barn or packing house and get whatever price they get. If you are wanting to increase the revenue from your ranch then how you sell your culls can not be overlooked.
Revenue from selling culls generally range from 15% to 30% of a ranch’s annual income. That is almost a quarter of all the money that comes in from the cows you don’t want anymore. Properly marketing your culls can be like any other plan that your operation has. If planned and executed correctly can improve your return on investment.
What is a cull’s value?
When it comes to grading a cull cow they usually fall in 1 of 5 categories: Commercial, Utility-Breaker, Utility-Boner, Cutter, and Canner. The ranking goes from Commercial on top down to Canner being the lowest grade that they can receive.
While there may be some exceptions mature cows (ones older than 4 years of age) commonly fall into the bottom 3 categories. This is generally caused by the fact that as they age their feed efficiency goes down and they begin to lose body condition. Another cause of this is the eventual yellow tinting of their muscle fat from long consumption of the carotene in the forages.
Speaking of fat. Cows classified as heavy, a BCS score of 7 or higher, are typically classified as Breaker. Ones in the medium range go as Boning and the very thin ones go as Cutter and Canner. This is because of the low dressing percentage and the condition of the muscles.
Understanding the cull market
As with anything involving the cattle market the prices that a cull would go for can fluctuate from year to year. But over a 30 year period there seems to be a general flow with market prices.
Prices are typically lower during the fall months. People usually wean calves during this time and while they are doing this they make the decisions on which animals to cull. When that happens everyone goes to sell all the animals that they want to get rid of. So there is a flood on the market and the demand goes down.
On the flip side of this prices usually reach their highest point during the spring. The months of March, April, and May can see a producer get the highest price for their “throw aways“. So with this information marketing culls 90 days after weaning may be an optimal plan.
Cull retention considerations
The decision on whether to hold off selling a cull should always be on a cow by cow basis. You should take into account the condition of each animal before deciding on investing in it. Two very important conditions that you should look at are the cow’s overall health and their body condition score.
Lame or extremely sick cows should be sold straight to a packer immediately. Animals must be able to move around otherwise they will be rejected. So if there is even a question that they will get worse then it is best to cut your losses right now. Sick cows will just cost too much to keep them around. Also they won’t have a good average daily gain so they won’t be worth the investment.
Packing plants discount any animals that are too fleshy so it is best to sell any heavy culls that you have right away, Also cows in the higher body condition score average daily gain will begin to drop off rather quickly so the cost of feeding them will not offset what you could get for them. Ones in the thin to medium range generally yielded higher net returns from retention that they heavy ones.
Another consideration that you should look at is if you have the facilities to hold them over. If you are looking at putting them in a dry lot situation then you will need a larger amount of bunk space than for weaning calves. Mature cows need about 20 to 24 inches of bunk space per head to ensure that every animal has room to eat. They also have a higher water requirement than younger cows. Though it is not known for sure a mature lactating cow requires about 6 gallons of water per day.
What to feed them
When you are planning out how to feed the culls you have to decide between just maintain their current body score or feeding to increase their carcass grade.
Feeding for maintenance is the cheapest option but it does come with it’s downsides. If their grade is too low then the money that you get for it may not cover the cost of feeding it.
Course feeding to increase a quality grade is not that complicated and really doesn’t require much more investment than feeding just for maintenance. To increase a quality grade you really only have to feed for a minimum of 50 to 60 days.
Now before you think you could feed longer and improve 2 grades let me stop you right there, feeding for much longer than that is not a good idea. If you were to feed for over 100 to 110 days studies have shown that both feed efficiency and rate of gain both decrease.
What you feed them does not have to be complicated either. A study conducted by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and South Dakota State University was able to achieve an average daily gain of 2.81, 2.97, and 3.10 on just corn and some corn stalks.
If you would like to learn more about how to plan out a supplement program then click here.
Review
If you are looking to increase the market value of your culls you should consider:
- what classification they will be
- what time of year it is
- are they in decent body condition score and health
- do you have the facilities to hold them over
- will what you can get for them cover what it will cost to feed them
Great information especially selling in the fall when everyone else is and flooding the market. Wait till spring to sell the culls. Thank you very much I definitely will do this next time.
Just be sure that what you will get for them will be more than the cost of keeping them a little longer
Mr Malmstrom
Fortunately we are Blessed we can water our whole place and we have our place built where we can rotate like crazy and we do so our grass is never overgrazed. it’s a pleasure to work the cows they really do it themselves moving them that is. So we have the grass hay to keep them just always have gotten rid of the culls during the fall because it’s in our heads to during that time you don’t want to feed them through the winter. We’ve always done it that way. Most of our culls are in great shape too but we always get a bum price at that time of year. So next time I’m going to try your advice and do it in the spring. Try it out. Thank you again
Great information!!!! Thank you never thought about it like that waiting to sell in the spring rather than in the fall !!!!
You are very welcome. Glad I could of help