Despite high beef prices, a smaller dairy herd and higher demand and prices for dairy cow replacements have now impacted cull cow slaughter rates for over a full year.
Based on latest USDA monthly data released Feb. 20, the number of dairy cull cows marketed through U.S. slaughter plants in January 2025 was estimated at 247,900. While up 23,400 from December, it was 2,300 fewer than January 2024 and the lowest January total since 2010.
January 2024 had 27 non-holiday weekdays and Saturdays while January 2025 also had 27 days. Slaughter averaged 9,200 head per business day this year, 100 lower from a year earlier.
After a one-time jump in slaughter in mid-January when weekly slaughter surpassed the same week a year earlier, a long-term trend has resumed.
Through the week ending Feb. 8, 2025, weekly dairy cow slaughter has trailed year-earlier levels in five of six weeks. Since September 2023 and through the week ending Feb. 8, weekly dairy cow slaughter has now trailed year-earlier levels for 73 of 75 weeks, with a total decline of about 464,500 head over that period.
The USDA estimated there were 9.365 million dairy cows in U.S. herds in January 2025, up 10,000 head from the December estimate and putting the January culling rate at about 2.6% of the herd.
Read: Milk production higher to start 2025
Heaviest dairy cow culling during January occurred in the Upper Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin) at 61,800 head. That was followed in the Southwest (Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada) at 55,700 head.
Other monthly regional totals were estimated at 36,000 head in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia; 34,500 head in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington; and 30,100 head in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Primary data for the USDA’s Livestock Slaughter report is obtained from reports from about 900 federally inspected plants and nearly 1,850 state-inspected or custom-exempt slaughter plants.
