breeding cows age

[redheeler]

Just wondering, About how many years do most of you guys keep a cow till she goes down the road, as long as she comes in bred or do you cut off at a specific age?

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I usually mouth my cows in the fall that are around 10 yrs of age. They leave when they are loosing teeth. I might keep a broken mouth if she's the type to be an easy do-er but most times they go.

 

[4Diamond]

My oldest is currently 16, raises a good calf each year so I'll keep her around.

 

[Faster horses]

We had one that raised a good calf at 13 years of age. That fall she was dry.
Otherwise, we did like BMR. If you keep them too long and they start to go the other
way, they can go downhill fast. We called those kind of cows "shelly" and they
aren't worth much.

 

[littlejoe]

Last calf heifers? Usually go by condition and what she's weaning rather than teeth.

If it's a crossbred and getting a little gimpy, you might want to get rid of her in a yr or two.....

Straight angus? If you see her favor a hind leg for over two steps, do NOT eat supper, do NOT change your clothes--load her up and put hammer down to closest sales ring, code 3

 

[Silver]

We like to keep the herd youthful and saleable at all times. There may get to be a very few older cows who are still doing a good job (we have 2 N cows, so 12 yrs old I guess) but as FH says you don't want shelly cows, and if you keep a cow long enough she will let you down. We are fortunate here that our grass and grazing conditions are far more forgiving than sandier soiled areas so as a result cows tend to remain youthful much longer. This fall I want to clean up any cows older than R. But that kinda hinges on another good test lol

 

[RSL]

We usually base it on calf, or if she is showing her age. For example I have a youthful 'M' cow here, and some 'T' cows that look older than the M. We have wound up occasionally with an alphabet cow (made it through the whole tattoo sequence) which is somewhere around 23 years old, but not commonly. As we have been expanding we have hit 12 to 15 years as something of a cutoff here unless it is an exceptional type of cow. Once we are fully up to speed, we will work that number down to around 10 years old.

 

[EastWind]

For us its quality of weaned calf. If they are over a two year old and bring in the bottom calves they will go, unless there could be something wrong with the calf and she has been one of the top cows over the years, then she gets another chance. And at the price of cull cows it doesn't hurt sending them down the road