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2020 COW easier spacing out of workers The Midwest Cattleman · February 25, 2021 · P15
continued from page 3 than at traditional steer / heifer ciated aspect of the beef produc- I would also point to 2020 cow
processing plants. Secondly, and tion system. Even though there slaughter as another indicator.
that I am sharing compares beef perhaps most significantly, cow are way fewer dairy cows than We culled the herd pretty hard
cow slaughter in 2019 and 2020. plants tend to be less regionally beef cows in the US, the higher during 2019 and actually saw
The sharp drop in slaughter lev- concentrated. Since the pandemic culling rates in the dairy sector cow slaughter increase from 2019
els from March to April is clear in impacted different regions at dif- actually lead to very similar total to 2020. This was the case even
the chart. However, cow slaughter ferent times, the labor impacts on slaughter volumes. The same fac- though the beef cow herd was a
was not impacted as drastically cow slaughter facilities were more tors that impacted beef slaughter bit smaller last year, and we had
during this time as steer and heif- spaced out. The beef cow slaugh- (labor constraints, demand for to deal with significant labor
er slaughter. Some have pointed ter chart includes 2020 slaughter ground beef, farm level profitabil- challenges in the spring. I find
out that cow slaughter plants data through November. Some ity challenges, etc.) also impacted this very telling and another sign
tend to be smaller in scale, which may find it surprising that beef dairy cow slaughter last year. that we will see another drop in
is generally true. I would make cow slaughter was 2.5% higher Profitability challenges at the beef cow numbers. While it often
two other points that are likely during the first eleven months of cow-calf level certainly have im- takes time, this is a necessary
part of the reason for this. First, 2020, than it was in 2019. pacted beef cow numbers in the step in building strong calf prices.
processing of cull cows is a less I also wanted to share the US during the last year. And con-
complicated process in the sense dairy cow slaughter chart for tinued weather challenges in the
that fewer cuts are likely being comparative reference. Dairy cow Western half of the country have
made. This probably allowed for slaughter can be an under-appre- had major impacts as well. But