Dairy Cow Culling Still Way Down

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The United States Department of Agriculture reported this afternoon that 229,000 dairy cows were sent to slaughter in federally licensed and inspected plants in August, down 37,000 head from a year ago. Culling was also 3,000 head lower in August than July of this year.

 

But these numbers are bit of an overstatement, because there were 22 business days in August 2013 and July 2014, one more day than August 2014.  On that basis, year over year culling was down 9.8%. And culling was actually up 359 head per day in August of this year compared to July.

 

Year to date, culling is still down 233,000 head compared to 2013. That’s an 11% decrease.

Read the full report here.

 

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Dairy - General USDA Archived Content
 

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