by Garth Ruff

Cull cows represent nearly 20% of the revenue to a cow-calf beef operation. Since 2022, cull prices for lean, high-yielding cows have been at historical highs.

This is in large part due to the severe drought in the western U.S. spanning from 2021-22. Although cows represent a large portion of the beef supply and are more valuable than ever, the 2022 National Beef Quality audit revealed that cow condition and quality has been on a decline.

One of the biggest surprises of the audit was the number of beef cull cows recorded as inadequately muscled, at 70.4%, nearly double the rate of cows from the 2016 audit. These are cows with a muscle score of 1 or 2 out of 5. With regard to body condition scores on a 9-point scale, nearly 67% of cows had a BCS of less than 5.

In addition to lower BCS and muscling scores, there was an increased prevalence of cows with major bruising, causing between 1 and 10 pounds of product to be trimmed away and discarded.

From an animal-handling perspective, concern was raised when 100% of the packing plants surveyed reported buckshot in cow and bull carcasses, and 18.8% of the plants reported either needles, bullets, darts or wire in cull animals.

When combined, inadequate muscling, poor body condition, carcass bruising and defects were attributed to $84.30 per head in lost opportunity. In 2022, there were 3,870,000 cull animals harvested. The economic loss across the industry was significant at more than $326 million dollars.

Can losses be made up?

The answer is generally yes, and it comes down to timely marketing and selling cows that are adequately muscled and in good condition.

CattleFax reports from 2022 to 2024 show beef cow slaughter is down 1.5 million head. With demand for lean beef, cull cow and bull prices have been historically high in recent months. In 2024, the average value of a utility grade cow has averaged nearly $1,550 per head, compared to a canner or cutter cow at $1,150 per head.

Some options to capture increased cull revenue include understanding the seasonality of cull prices, retaining cows through the winter and adding weight, and timely marketing older cows.

From a seasonal perspective, cull prices are often at their lowest from November through early January, plateau in late June to September and then take a steep drop in price during October. With mostly spring-calving cows being marketed in late fall, supply and demand is a major factor.

Selling cull cows in August and September can lead to increased revenue, or if feed is available, producers can retain cows until the market improves in February while adding additional pounds to cows. The difference between a canner-cutter in November and a utility cow price in February is about a 20% to 25% increase in price, according to CattleFax data.

With regard to the handling and foreign object concerns, firearms are not cattle-handling tools. I would suspect most cattle producers are doing the right thing. Furthermore, while darts can be a tool to treat cattle covering large tracts of land, they need to be used properly in accordance with Beef Quality Assurance.

With historically high cull cow and bull prices, there is an opportunity to add revenue to beef operations and have a change in mindset that a cull animal is a secondary product. Many packing plants are pulling whole muscle cuts from cows — they are more than just ground beef when they leave the farm.

Ruff is the OSU Extension beef field specialist. He is also a member of the OSU Extension Beef Team that publishes the weekly Ohio BEEF Cattle letter, which can be found at beef.osu.edu.