03/27/08 Cull cows

In the past dairy producers sent their cull cows to market when milk prices dropped or heifer replacements were cheap. If the cow spent no time in a feed lot and meat was a little tough, so what? Today those same market cattle are fabricated into nearly 20 wholesale cuts of steaks, roasts, fajitas and high value products. University of Idaho's Jason Ahola is helping dairy producers improve meat quality of cull animals by monitored animals from three Idaho dairies last year. AHOLA "So what we've been able to do is put some dairy cows on feed for about 90 days, add about 300 pounds of gain and take a cow that maybe weights 14 hundred pounds up to one that weights about 17 hundred pounds." Ahola says cull animals fed out for three months could represent as much as ten percent or more of a dairy's income. AHOLA "Treat them like you would your replacement heifers that you send off and have somebody else develop. Send your cull cows off and have somebody else feed them so you don't have to worry about them anymore and they're managed by someone who has a lot of experience." Ahola will try to collect more data on the feed out to cows and he'll try to set up guidelines that will help producers make decisions on cull livestock. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott