Dairy cow slaughter is about four percent higher year-to-date than 2016, the United States Department of Agriculture reported in its November Livestock Slaughter report. About 108,000 more cows have been sent to slaughter this year than last.
Through November, dairy cow slaughter totaled 2.741 million head, which represents a cull rate of about 29%. (That number does not include cows that were slaughtered in non-federally inspected plants, or died or were euthanized on farm for non-ambulatory reasons.)
In November, about the same number of dairy cows, 243,700, were harvested through federally-inspected slaughter plants as November 2016. The November 2017 total was down about 2% on a per-head-per-day basis compared to October 2017.
Read the complete livestock slaughter report here.
Source: Milk Business