Dairy cattle span multiple product sectors, with a first career as a dairy animal and a second career as a beef animal. With a declining cattle herd population in the U.S., focusing on health and welfare of each animal remains important. In addition, finding extra value in each animal is critical to each operation’s business.
Look At The Factors
According to the 2022 National Beef Quality Audit, dairy or beef cows and bulls that can no longer be used for their original purpose are still valuable. Cull cattle, or animals being removed from the herd, can be marketed in several ways dependent on the type of operation, their production and marketing goals, resources, and other factors.
In a guide titled “Right Way. Right Time. A guide to cull dairy cattle management,” the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program collaborated with CattleFax and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association to evaluate these various factors and improve cull cattle management to enhance animal welfare while considering economics.
This document uses established standards to address key areas of opportunity for effective cull cattle management and provide strategies for making timely culling decisions and improving welfare. It is designed to help producers examine the opportunity to capture more value.
“‘The Right Way. Right Time.’ handbook provides practical steps to help farmers and veterinarians make the right decision on the complex question of ‘When is the right time for a dairy cow to change careers,’” says Meggan Hain, chief veterinary officer for the National Milk Producers Federation and the National Dairy FARM Program.
Topics Covered
The handbook establishes a mechanism for proper diagnosis, treatment protocols and training topics like fitness for transport and euthanasia decisions.
When it comes to minimizing stress during transportation or career changes, understanding how temperature, wind speed, humidity and storms affect cattle and calves during transportation is important. There are also many aspects of transportation that can be controlled — including where the animal is marketed, the equipment used, stocking density and transporter education. Recommendations for calf transport from the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) are included in the resource.
The BQA Transportation certification, which helped guide the ‘Right Way. Right Time.’ documents, provides direction on fitness for transport decisions with topics such as mobility scoring, body condition scoring, length of transport and withdrawal times. Both educational resources can be training tools for veterinarians when working with their dairy and calf operations.
For example, the following are points to consider before deciding to ship an animal:
- Ensure all animals have cleared withdrawal times prior to shipping
- Make proactive decisions to ensure early treatment or early culling to lead to better outcomes for the animal
- Do not transport cattle with a Body Condition Score of 2 or less to reduce bruising, prioritize welfare and improve yield/payment
- Mobility score 3 (using a 5-point scale) should be strongly scrutinized at the farm or auction market and evaluated for their ability to make the full trip to their end destination and in shape to walk into the processing plant
- Full udders can cause animal discomfort and mobility issues, in addition to being a food safety concern since milk is considered a contaminant
With all fitness for transport and culling decisions, we should be asking ourselves, “What does it mean when the animal leaves the farm in that condition? Is this what is best for the animal?”
Euthanasia is also an important decision for which veterinarians should be a crucial adviser. Supporting producers in making euthanasia and culling decisions and developing protocols can help take the decision making away from the producer, making it easier to take that next step. For animals that should be euthanized rather than transported, ensuring landmarks are correct and maintenance of euthanasia tools are more steps to improving welfare. Considerations for carcass disposal should be weighed depending on what is available in the area and what is practical for the operation.
The Veterinarian’s Role
The veterinarian is key to the discussion, and can provide guidance and training on these topics.
It is important to recognize that cull cow marketing is rarely an all-or-nothing decision. There are nuances on each operation that the dairy farmer, employees and veterinarian should discuss when deciding to remove an animal from the herd. Cull cow management and marketing on the dairy is an important part of the business that deserves attention, rather than just serving as a byproduct from producing milk. Veterinarians are encouraged to use industry resources such as the “Right Way. Right Time. A guide to cull dairy cattle management” document, the National Dairy FARM resources at https://nationaldairyfarm.com/, and the BQA program at www.bqa.org.
