Cull cows are worth more than they have ever been. Do not sell them in November.

A cull cow used to be an afterthought. You preg-checked, the opens went on the trailer with the calves, and whatever the barn paid was found money. At today's prices a 1,300-pound cow is a $1,500 to $2,000 animal, and the difference between selling her at the wrong time in the wrong condition and the right time in the right condition is several hundred dollars a head. Multiply by the 10 to 15 percent of the herd you cull every year and it is real money.

The seasonal pattern

Cull cow prices follow the calendar because culling follows the calendar. Everybody preg-checks in the fall, everybody sells opens in October and November, and the market is flooded. Prices for utility cows typically bottom in November and December and climb through the winter to a peak in March through May, when supply is thin and grilling season demand for lean grinding beef is building. The spread between the fall low and the spring high has historically run 15 to 25 percent, and in a market this tight, the dollar spread is larger than it has ever been.

The grades

Cull cows are sold on condition, and the barn buyer is sorting them into four groups whether you know it or not:

• Breakers: fleshy cows, body condition score 7 and up, 75 to 80 percent lean. Highest price per pound.
• Boners (boning utility): moderate condition, BCS 5 to 7, 80 to 85 percent lean. The biggest group and the benchmark price.
• Lean: thin cows, BCS 1 to 4, 85 to 90 percent lean. Lowest price per pound and the lowest weight.
• Light: lean cows under about 800 pounds.

A thin cow gets hit twice: she weighs less and she brings less per pound. Moving a cow from Lean to Boner can be worth $15 to $25 a hundredweight plus 100 to 150 pounds, which is why the feeding question exists.

Sell now or feed her

The math for a thin open cow at preg-check:

• Sell now: Lean grade, 1,100 pounds, fall price. Done.
• Feed 60 to 90 days: she gains 2 to 3 pounds a day on a moderate ration, moves up a grade, and sells into a better market in January or February. Feed cost at current hay and grain prices runs $2 to $3 a day, so $150 to $250 for the period, against a gain that has been running $300 to $500 in value.

The rules for whether it works: she has to be sound, she has to be healthy, and she has to be young enough to gain. An old, broken-mouthed cow with a bad foot will not put on weight efficiently and belongs on the truck. A 5-year-old open cow that lost condition nursing a big calf on short grass is exactly the cow that pays to feed.

And you need the feed. In a drought year with hay at $200 a ton, the feeding math gets thinner and the pasture she is standing on may be needed for the cows that are bred. Run it with your own numbers.

Why cull cow prices are where they are

Lean grinding beef is in shortage. The dairy herd is being bred to beef bulls instead of turning over, the beef cowherd is at a 75-year low, and imports of lean trimmings from Australia and Brazil are the swing supply, which is why the tariff pause on South American beef matters to your cull check and not just to the fed cattle trade. The upshot is that the packer needs your cull cow more than he has in a generation.

Marketing options

Most cull cows go through the local barn on a Tuesday and that is fine. But check whether there is a cull cow special sale within reasonable hauling distance; some barns run them and draw the packer buyers. Direct-to-packer sales exist for loads. And a cow that is fat and sound is sometimes worth more as a bred cow than as beef, if she was culled for a reason that is fixable; a late-bred cow can be sold as a bred cow in a fall bred-cow sale for more than the packer pays, and let someone else sort out the calving date.

The short version

Preg-check early, sell the old and lame ones right away regardless of season, feed the young thin ones into January, and never sell a cow the same week as everyone else if you can help it.