As we continue to deal with drought and extreme heat, pasture conditions across Oklahoma are deteriorating rapidly. Low hay inventories and high feed costs are forcing cow-calf operations to make some hard decisions. Reducing your cow inventory may be the best option to reduce stress on your grazing system and help stretch your feed/forage resources as long as possible. If you find yourself in this situation right now, consider the following culling criteria.
Pregnancy status
From our recent peak inventory in 2018, our national beef cow inventory has decreased by over 6 percent as of July 2022. This has been dramatically accelerated by drought in various parts of the U.S. over the past two years. This is the light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the future value of beef calves. Fewer cows in production means fewer calves produced, which cycles to a higher value for calves. As we cull cows in order to persevere and sustain our cow-calf business operation, prioritize holding onto heavy bred cows over short bred cows and cull the open ones.
Old cows
Cows reach their prime production years at about 4 years of age. Around 10 years of age, most cows start to wean smaller calves and are more likely to come up open and have health issues.
Bad disposition
Cull waspy, aggressive cows that are hard to catch and work. If you have made excuses for keeping them in the past, the current situation is the perfect reason to cull.
Nonconforming/unsound
For cows that are late to breed and calve (see reason number 1); cows with bad feet, bad legs, bad udders, bad eyes or bad teeth; or cows that are intolerant to summer heat or have a bad health history, now is the time to get them off the feed bill.
Production records
Finally, if all your cows are bred, due to calve within a 30-day window, have a calm temperament, have perfect udders and feet, are 4 years old, etc., and you must reduce inventory, take a look at cow production records. Checking pregnancy status in combination with weighing calves and cows each year at weaning has several long-term benefits. Your best cows wean off the highest percentage of their mature weight each year.
These more productive cows are those that have the genetic potential to conceive/calve early in the season, avoid health issues, and have appropriate mature weight and milk potential relative to their production environment.
For example, if you look at past production records and find that your cow herd averages weaning off 45 percent of their mature weight with a range of 35-55 percent and you have determined that you need to cull half of your cows, you should cull the lower-producing half that averaged weaning off less than 45 percent of their mature weight. Doing so immediately slashes your feed bill, and you still own your best cows. — Mark Z. Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension beef cattle breeding specialist
