High beef prices, a smaller dairy herd, and higher demand and prices for dairy cow replacements have now impacted cull cow slaughter rates for a full year.
Based on latest USDA monthly data released Jan. 23, the number of dairy cull cows marketed through U.S. slaughter plants in December 2024 was estimated at 224,500. While up 14,200 from November, it was also 200 fewer than December 2023 and the lowest December total since 2007.
December 2023 had 26 non-holiday weekdays and Saturdays while December 2024 also had 26 days. Slaughter averaged 8,600 head per business day this year, unchanged from a year earlier.
The final week of December and the first week of January have continued a long-term trend in which weekly slaughter trailed the same period a year earlier. Since September 2023, weekly dairy cow slaughter trailed year-ago levels for 69 of 70 weeks, with a total decline of about 454,000 head over that period. (The one week outside that trend was likely due to the Thanksgiving date on the calendar and USDA slaughter calendars: Nov. 23 in 2023 and Nov. 28 in 2024.)
The USDA estimated there were 9.351 million dairy cows in U.S. herds in December 2024, down 9,000 head from the November estimate and putting the December culling rate at about 2.4% of the herd. Based on the monthly data, year-to-date (January-December) dairy cull cow slaughter now stands at about 2,725,600 head, down 350,900 from the same period a year ago and the lowest 11-month total since 2008.
It also marks the first year that annual dairy cow slaughter fell below 3 million head since 2014-17.
Heaviest dairy cow culling during December occurred in the Upper Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin) at 57,400 head. That was followed in the Southwest (Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada) at 51,700 head.
Other monthly regional totals were estimated at 31,600 head in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia; 29,200 head in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas; and 28,600 head in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Primary data for the USDA’s Livestock Slaughter report is obtained from reports from about 900 federally inspected plants and nearly 1,850 state-inspected or custom-exempt slaughter plants.
Read also: Replacement cow prices climbed to a record-breaking high in October
