Dairy Cow Slaughter Up Over December
Dairy farmers, perhaps waiting to take advantage of a new tax year, sent 10,000 more cows to slaughter in January this year than in December 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture reported this afternoon.
What’s more amazing is that January 2016 had one less business day than December 2015, so on a daily basis, cow culling was actually up 9%.
On a year-over-year basis, dairy farmers culled 9,900 cows fewer in January 2016 than they did in January 2015. That’s a 3.6% decrease.
The raw culling numbers: January 2016—265,500; December 2015—255,400; January 2015—275,400.