U.S. dairy farmers culled 58,000 cows during the January 12 to 18, 2025, time window. While that isn’t newsworthy or record breaking, just one year ago, dairy farmers culled 51,100 head of dairy cows during the third week of January. When comparing those two moments in time, the collective U.S. dairy industry sent 6,900 more cows to slaughter during the third week of January 2025.
Those 6,900 additional cull cows aren’t headline making by themselves. What is top of fold for a newspaper is the fact that dairy farmers broke a 73-week streak in which they sent fewer cows to slaughter when comparing culling activity to the same week one year ago.
That 73-week steak began the final week of August 2023 and continued for the remaining 19 weeks that year. Then, in 2024, the pullback on culling continued throughout all 52 weeks when accounting for the shift in the Thanksgiving holiday. The first two weeks of the new year started out much of same with dairy cow culling being down 5,000 head. Afterward came the third week of January, and the 6,900 additional dairy cows sent to slaughter completely reversed the trendline and sent the cull data 1,900 cows higher compared to the first three weeks in 2024.
By Corey Geiger
February 3, 2025
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