The United States Department of Agriculture reported this morning that 253,000 dairy cows were sent to slaughter in federally inspected plants in November. That’s up 10,000 head from October (4%) and 12,000 head from a year ago (5%).
Year-to-date, 2.652 million dairy cows have been culled, which is 110,000 more cows (4.3%) than 2010.
In a bit of a surprise, the biggest increase in culling came from the Midwest, where culling was up 7,600 head over October numbers. That’s a 9.3% increase.
The feed challenged Southwest also was up, but not as much as the Midwest. New Mexico and Texas sent 8.8% more cows to slaughter. And Arizona, California and Nevada sent 5.3% more cows to slaughter in November than October.
The full November report can be read here.
