Cull beef cows make up about 10% of the U.S. beef supply and provide 15 to 20% of the gross revenue of typical cow-calf operations. Effective marketing of cull cows can have a large impact on the profitability of cow-calf operations. Cull Cow pricing is determined by live animal grading and cull cows are priced based on their body condition, dressing percentage, and expected lean meat yield. Cull Cows are sorted into 4 primary carcass grades: Breaking Utility are 75 to 80% lean and generally are BCS 7 or greater and have the greatest dressing yield 52 to 55%; Boning Utility are intermediate fleshed with BCS of 5.5 to 6.6 and commonly have dressing percentage of 50%; Lean are thinner cows with 85 to 90% lean with BCS of 4.5 to 5 and 48 to 49% dressing percentage; Lights/Canners are the leanest with BCS <4.5 and 48% dressing percentage. Breakers are the most valuable with a $3 to 5/cwt premium over Boning Utility cows and over $10/cwt premium over Lean and Light cows. The current slaughter cow prices are available from the USDA AMS at https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/ams_1823.pdf.
Beef cutout research (Apple and others 1999 https://doi.org/10.2527/1999.77102610x) indicated that cows in BCS 4 were 64% in the Boning or Breaking Utility grade while cows in BCS 6 and 7 were 73 and 100% Boning or Breaking Utility. So, condition of cows at market has a large impact on returns for cull cows. The following Table shows the value of cull cows using current cull cow prices, expected weight changes between BCS, and the expected cull cow grades. I used cull cow BW at 1225 at a BCS 5 and adjusted live weight by 75 pounds for each BCS change. Prices for Boning and Breaking Utility were $133 and for Lean/Cutting were $124/cwt.
Increasing BCS 4 to BCS 8 at marketing increased cull cow value by over $450, while increasing BCS from extremely thin BCS of 2 to BCS 8 increases cow value by nearly $700. This increase in value comes from both added body weight and increasing market price through increased quality.
About 60% of cull beef cows are marketed in the Utility grade with 20 to 25% in the USDA Cutter and 5 to 15% in the Canner grade. Feeding thin cows to higher BCS before marketing can make a large difference in their value. When we consider that the prices of cull cows typically hit their lowest point in the fall, substantial gains can be made by feeding cows to heavier weights and marketing in a higher market. Next week's article we will explore the ideal market endpoints of cull cows and feeding programs to get there.
