A smaller milking herd, tight replacement heifer supplies to keep barns full and slight improvements in milk income margins continue to contribute to a slowdown in dairy cull cow marketing. However, with an additional day due to leap year, dairy cows marketed for beef inched higher in February. A mystery cow illness in the Southwest might boost those numbers further in March.
Based on the latest USDA monthly data released March 21, the number of dairy cull cows marketed through U.S. slaughter plants in February 2024 was estimated at 252,700. While up 2,500 from January and the highest monthly total since August, it was 13,800 fewer than February 2023 and the lowest February total since 2015.
Through March 2, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) estimates indicate the number of dairy cows marketed for beef has now trailed year-ago levels for 26 consecutive weeks, dating back to Sept. 9, 2023, and was down 171,800 from the same period a year earlier.
February 2023 had 24 non-holiday weekdays and Saturdays, while February 2024 had 25 days. Slaughter averaged 10,700 head per business day this year, down about 400 from a year earlier.
The USDA estimated there were 9.33 million dairy cows in U.S. herds in February 2024, down 10,000 from the revised January estimate and putting the February culling rate at about 2.7% of the herd. Based on the monthly data, year-to-date (January-February) dairy cull cow slaughter now stands at about 502,900 head, down 61,500 from the same period a year ago and the lowest two-month total to start the year since 2010.
Read: Leap day factors into milk production jump
Heaviest dairy cow culling during January occurred in the Upper Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin) at 60,300 head. That was followed in the Southwest (Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada) at 57,600 head.
Other monthly regional totals were estimated at 35,000 head in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia; 34,500 head in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas; and 31,800 head in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Primary data for the USDA’s Livestock Slaughter report is obtained from reports from about 900 federally inspected plants and nearly 1,900 state-inspected or custom-exempt slaughter plants.
Looking ahead, a contagious dairy cow illness in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico may lead to increased regional culling numbers in March. The disease, under investigation by state and federal animal health officials, is not proving fatal to cows, but the cows that do not recover in milk production are reported to be culled.
Read: Southwest dairies affected by unidentified dairy cow illness
