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Central Texas | X10 on the seasonal price patterns!!! Is a huge factor in cull cow profitability. The seasonal price increase PLUS the price increase from taking a canner/cutter grade cow up to a utility grade is where the profit comes from. The weight gain just pays most of the expenses. Google "feeding cull cows" lots of good info there. Think it is UNL that has a really good paper that does a good job of explaining the seasonal price patterns and also some graphs and charts showing when there is normally the most price increase. If a thin cutter grade cow is bought in fall and sold as a medium fleshed utility grade in the spring, is not unreasonable to expect a 15-20% price increase as a combination from both the seasonal increase and the grade increase. Not unusual to see a 8-10% increase just from upgrading from cutter to utility grade and that spread should always be there because the utility cow will have 8-10% more meat on her carcass on a per pound basis. It's all about selling the meat.
Most successful cull cow operator I know bought them in fall, grazed corn stalks in Nov and Dec, then grazed wheat in Jan and Feb. All cows that had not calved were then sold direct to packer and the ones that had calved were kept as pairs and sold at end of summer.
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anyone ever lost money on cull cows?
