Adding value to cull cows

Every fall, cattle producers face the same fork in the road: what to do with cull cows. 

Most folks haul them straight off pasture and into the sale barn at weaning time—just like everybody else. That’s the trouble. When the markets flood, prices soften. There’s a different path that can put more dollars in your pocket if you’re willing to manage it.

Feeding cull cows for 75 to 90 days before marketing can pay off in three ways. First, you avoid the seasonal price dip that hits when everyone else is selling. Second, you add weight fast—these cows are coming off a tough lactation and are primed for compensatory gain. Third, you can upgrade them into higher-value carcass categories, especially if you can finish them into the white fat market.

Cull cow prices still follow a pretty reliable seasonal pattern. They tend to climb from February through May, then drop $2 to $4 per hundredweight by September, typically falling another $4 to $6 per hundredweight from October through January. Lately, the bottom has shifted to January instead of November. That means if you can hold cows through the fall glut and sell in late winter or early spring, you’re stacking seasonal price gains on top of added weight and grade.

Picking the Right Cows

Not every cull cow is worth putting on feed. The best candidates are thin, sound and healthy—typically cows scoring under 5.5 on the body condition scale. These are the ones that have just weaned a calf and are ready to bounce back. They’ve got the frame and the appetite to convert feed into pounds fast.

Feet and legs matter. If she’s lame or structurally unsound, she won’t do well in a drylot. The same goes for broken-mouthed cows—they can’t chew grain properly and won’t gain. Avoid cows with health issues. Any cow that needs treatment is going to come with a withdrawal period that messes up your marketing window.

Be careful with cows that are thin for the wrong reasons. Some are just poor doers—flat-muscled, tucked-up types that won’t respond to feed. Don’t waste time on cows with obvious defects like lumpy jaw or cancer eye. They won’t grade up no matter how much weight they gain.

One more thing: double-check pregnancy status. Just because a cow was called “open” doesn’t mean she is. Some “open” cows turn out to be five months bred. With bred cow prices where they are, that’s a big miss if you don’t catch it.

Feeding Strategies

If you’re going to feed cull cows, treat them like finishers. That means high energy, low forage and sights on quick gain.

A typical dry cow might eat 20 pounds of hay a day. But on a finishing program, she’ll get just 2 to 5 pounds of roughage, with the rest coming from grain. That’s actually a plus in years when hay is tight or expensive—you’re stretching your forage and turning grain into beef.

Don’t be surprised by how much these cows will eat. Thin cows on a hot ration can take in 20–30% more dry matter than you’d expect.

Start them slow. Begin with a starter ration around 50 Mcal of net energy for gain per hundredweight—mostly corn, some supplement and a little roughage. Over two weeks, step them up to a finishing ration with 60-63 Mcal per hundredweight and 11.5% crude protein.

A good finishing mix is simple:

• 80-85% corn
• 8-10% supplement (protein, minerals, vitamins)
• 8-10% forage

That’s a hot ration, similar to what you’d feed a steer. It’s what puts on the pounds and builds the kind of carcass that brings a premium.

Use a feed intake enhancer at the start, and increase corn by about 2 pounds every 2–3 days. Watch the bunk—if they’re not cleaning it up, slow the increase. The step-up phase takes 2–3 weeks. Rushing it leads to digestive trouble. Patience here pays off later.

Expected Performance

Cull cows can gain weight fast—if you feed them right. University trials at Wyoming and Nebraska have shown gains of 3.5 to 4.5 pounds per day on high-grain diets over a 90-day period.

The most significant gains usually come early. Those first 5-6 weeks are when cows are in compensatory gain mode. They’re rebuilding muscle and gut fill. One Illinois study showed cows fed for just 42 days gained over 6 pounds per day—compared to 3.5 pounds per day for cows fed 84 days.

As cows stay on feed longer, they shift from putting on lean weight to adding fat. That’s necessary if you’re targeting the white fat market, but it’s less efficient. Fat gain takes more feed per pound than muscle gain.

Don’t expect steer numbers. A good finishing steer might convert at 5-7 pounds of feed per pound of gain. A cull cow will clock in at more like 7.5 to 9.5 pounds. The older the cow and the longer she’s on feed, the more feed it takes to put on a pound.

They’ll work you over on groceries. A finishing cow might take in 2.25% to 2.6% of her body weight in dry matter daily. But if she’s gaining 4 pounds a day, the economics can still pencil.

Management Tools

Since cull cows aren’t the most efficient animals to feed, anything you can do to improve performance is an advantage. Implants and feed additives are essential if you want to make the numbers work.

Start with implants. A good combination implant with estrogen and androgen can give you a bump in gain and feed efficiency. Don’t worry too much about marbling or tenderness. The extra pounds are what pay.

Ionophores like Rumensin or Bovatec help with feed efficiency and keep cows on feed. MGA (melengestrol acetate) keeps them quiet and eating. If you want to push performance, add Optaflexx in the last 30-40 days. That combo—MGA and Optaflexx—can move the needle on gain.

These tools cost money. But they more than pay for themselves if you’re feeding aggressively.

Facility Requirements

You don’t need a fancy setup to feed cull cows, but you do need space and good management. Give them room to sort out their pecking order. Plan on 20–24 inches of bunk space per cow—double what you’d give a calf.

Bunk feeding or self-feeders can both work. Just make sure timid cows aren’t getting pushed off the feed. If you’re using self-feeders, make sure your supplement is balanced and that cows are adapted to the ration.

Hauling is another consideration. You won’t get as many cows on a load as you would with calves—usually 29 to 31 head per pot. That bumps up your freight cost per head.

Proximity to a packer matters. You’ll lose about 6% shrink from the yard to the rail, so the closer you are, the better. Know your marketing options and plan your logistics accordingly.

Alternative: Winter Grazing

Not everyone wants to run a drylot. If you’ve got crop residue—corn stalks, for example—you can still add value with a winter grazing program. 

A cow can gain 90 to 100 pounds over two months on stalks, especially with a little protein supplement. That’s a full body condition score or more. Gains won’t be as fast as in the feedlot, but your costs are lower. 

Just know that cows on forage won’t hit the white fat market. They’ll still be yellow-fat, grass-fed types. That’s fine if your goal is to add weight and sell into the standard market. But if you want the premium, you’ve got to feed grain.

The Premium White Fat Market

If you’re serious about premiums, the white fat market is the goal. Packers like American Foods Group in Green Bay pay top dollar for cows that hit their specs: white fat, good muscling and decent marbling.

To get there, you need to feed hot rations—63 Mcal per hundredweight net energy for gain, minimal forage, and full feed access. These cows need to gain 4-5 pounds per day in the yard to net 3.5 pounds per day after shrink.

Use every tool:

• Ionophores
• MGA
• Optaflexx
• Aggressive implants
• Dewormers

Feed for 10-12 weeks. After 100 days, gains slow and the cost of gain goes up. Time your marketing right.

Risk Management

Feeding cull cows isn’t risk-free. Feed prices can jump. Cattle prices can drop. That’s why shorter feeding windows—75 to 90 days—are usually safer than dragging it out.

One smart move is to preg-check early. Don’t wait until weaning. If you can identify open cows in late summer, you can market them before the fall glut—or start feeding early and beat the January low.

Feeding cull cows can work—but it requires focused management. Select the right cows. Feed them right. Watch your costs. And sell when the market is in your favor.