USDA released dairy cow slaughter numbers for August this morning, which indicate 13,000 more cows went through Federally-inspected plants this August compared to a year ago. Eleven thousand more head were slaughtered in August 2009 compared to July 2009.
To date, 1.912 million cows have been slaughtered in 2009, up 217,000 head (13%) over 2008.
Note, however, that the Cooperatives Working Together program has culled 226,000 cows and some 5,000 bred heifers in 2009. www.agweb.com/DairyToday/Article.aspx
So it appears that dairy producers not selling their herds through CWT have actually culled 14,000 head less this year when you add in the bred heifers than a year ago.
