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Advisor says culling dairy cows too soon hurts profitability

A dairy advisor says producers should carefully consider when to cull cows from the herd.

Dr. Andy Bohnhoff with ProAGtive Technologies says dairy producers might be losing money if they’re culling cows too quickly. He says, “If you’re an expansion herd, you don’t usually cull your animals just because you want to keep them all because you are expanding, but if you are a stable herd, I would argue that a lower cull rate is going to be more profitable at end of the day.”

Bohnhoff says the average culling age for most herds has been around three and a half years, but his research shows keeping good cows in the herd six or seven years could improve the farm’s bottom line. “Our older cows are the ones that at the end of the day provide more income over feed cost and really, that’s a margin, so that directly correlates to profitability. The more we can have those other cows in the herd, the more profitable you’re going to be.”

Bohnhoff says farmers are looking for that financial sweet spot, where they don’t spend too much money on replacements while taking care of the older cows.  He encourages producers to keep focusing on profitability instead of just costs, and continuously evaluate where they spend money on the farm.

Bohnhoff spoke to Brownfield at the Dairy Strong Conference in Madison, Wisconsin.