Cow Flow Through the Dairy

Culling Decisions

Abstract

Dairy cow culling decisions have an important influence on the financial success of the dairy. Culling decisions can function as a component of genetic improvement and selection programs designed for long term gain and improved production efficiency. At the same time, culling may also represent failure or limited success of production medicine programs due to cows leaving the herd prematurely because of disease or health-related problems.

Culling decisions are important from several different perspectives. Costs for replacement heifers may represent up to 20% of the dairy budget.13 Negative cash flows occur when a cow is sold as non-fed beef and a heifer is added to the lactating herd as a replacement. Cows retained in the herd represent capital investments, which are subject to various forms of risk that may alter the earnings from those investments. Perhaps wrong decisions are being made regarding which cows to keep, and choosing different cows for culling might increase profits. The perceived importance of culling decisions is also demonstrated by the observation that owners of particularly large herds, who otherwise are not involved in making individual cow management decisions, often directly participate in the routine decision-making process for selecting cows to cull.

Annual culling rates for dairy herds in the US range from less than 25% to more than 35%, with 30% being average.² Cows have different risks of being culled depending on their age.^1,13 Although there is a tendency for increased culling rates with advancing age, management constraints and biases can modify this relationship. The typical cow remains in the milking herd less than 4 years¹³ even though peak milk production related to maturity ordinarily does not decline until 8 or 9 years of age for most cows.³¹ The reluctance of some producers to cull first calf heifers and choosing instead to give them a second chance is an example of management bias affecting culling policy.