Culling cows is an essential element of any good beef herd improvement program. It eliminates poor performers, which helps maintain top performance in the overall herd.
But some years are tougher than others and call for more drastic culling to keep an operation on track. Any time feed resources are limited due to price, availability or both, it's time to consider culling cows you might otherwise keep.
It happened to Don MacLaughlin of Montague, Texas. At the beginning of 2006, MacLaughlin had 90 cows—primarily straightbred Angus females he was breeding to high-quality Charolais bulls. When drought hit that summer, he had to begin culling. He didn't stop until he was down to 55 head.
MacLaughlin was assisted by Clay Wright, livestock consultant with the Noble Foundation of Ardmore, Okla. Wright has helped ranchers in Oklahoma and Texas use a seven-step culling program to weather the drought that has plagued the Southwest for the past three years. He uses an adaptation of a program developed by land grant universities.
Once you've worked your way through groups 1, 2, 3 and 4, Wright says you've taken care of most of your problem cows. You've eliminated females least likely to produce a paycheck the following year.
From this point forward, though, it gets difficult because you are forced to dip into the "moneymakers" in your herd. That's why the last three steps in the program are only to be used when times are especially tough. Here's how it works.
Group 1: Open cows
This should be automatic for every herd, every year. "Assuming you're using a controlled breeding season, any female of any age that isn't bred on time should have no place in the herd."
Group 2: Unsound cows
This group includes any female of any age with bad feet, legs or mouth, or any unsoundness that potentially could interfere with production. Wright includes cows with poor dispositions in this group too.
Group 3: Thin cows
These cows will generally be older, although some may be as young as 7 years of age. The key in determining whether they should be culled is body condition. If they get a 4 or below on a Body Condition Score, it's unlikely they will breed without extensive feeding.
Group 4: Late-calving heifers
A heifer bred to calve as a 2-year-old is likely to be a late calver, says Wright. In addition, their calves tend to be lighter at weaning time.
"It is very difficult to back up a mature cow so she'll calve within a 60- to 90-day calving season," he explains. "It is even harder to back up a heifer. Two-year-olds have a lot of strikes against them. They have to produce milk to raise a calf; they're still growing themselves and trying to get rebred."
Group 5: Healthy older cows
Aged cows will be the first to decline in production potential. The definition of "old" can vary by herd. Wright uses the term for cows that are 7 years or older.
Group 6: Bred young cows
Start with first- and second-calf heifers. These have the lowest rebreeding potential and will wean the lightest calves. According to the Beef Improvement Foundation, the average weaning weight of a calf from a 2-year-old heifer is 60 pounds less than that of a mature cow.
Group 7: Mature cows
These are the heart of the herd, the most productive females—the 4- to 7-year-old cows, or maybe the 4- to 9-year-olds, Wright says. He bases culling decisions here on performance records, such as average weaning weights over a period of several years.
In the absence of performance records, he eliminates "the extremes"—very small or very large cows or those with excessively strong Brahman influence. The goal is a herd of cows of uniform size, color and calving dates.
Don MacLaughlin says that he follows those Noble Foundation recommendations to the letter, culling any open cows and those with any unsoundness, fertility or calving problems. But in 2006 it wasn't enough.
"When drought hit my area that year, I had a disproportionately high number of open cows, which my vet said was directly due to the dry weather," he reports. MacLaughlin culled all open cows as well as any that might have had problems that could've interfered with performance.
"We then took performance records from the three previous calving seasons for all my cows, which ranged in age from 6 to 10 years old. We looked at when each cow calved and how much her calf weighed at weaning. We culled any cow that calved late or had a historically low weaning weight."
As it turned out, MacLaughlin's deep culling program not only reduced his feed bills, it also improved calf quality. "In 2007, I had a very uniform set of calves, all born within a seven-week time frame," he reports. "They weaned in October, averaging 725 pounds.
"Being that early enabled me to hit a market opportunity by selling directly to a feedlot," he adds. "I hit a price spike. Those calves brought $8 per hundredweight over the Oklahoma City market for that day."