 The short answer to this question is maybe, but not at this point. There are numerous reasons why milk cows might be tagged for slaughter, but many of the large dairies are sending their cows directly to their meatpacker or choice. It is very difficult and time consuming for a small milk producer to tag a milk cow back into production rather than sending it to an auction where it would be purchased by meatpackers. There are a significant amount of testing that would need to take place in order to do this (TB requirements, etc.). Transporting the cows to the auction is also very costly due to the current price of gas (not to mention that there is also testing that needs to take place in order to transfer this cattle from state to state).
What type of cattle is showing up at the auctions?
The cows that are ending up at auctions are definitely not heading to a feedlot as they likely may have been in the past. These animals are again, typically heading straight for the meatpackers. These cows are also typically no longer efficient or useful as milk producers. If a buyer intends to keep the animal, they are then required to do a lot of testing of the animal as well...this is becoming quite rare because doing this is again, very costly to the buyer. There has been an increase in the number of milk cows going to slaughter. The government has reported that there has been a six percent increase in the number of animals going to the meatpackers as of late. It was also noted that these cows were primarily coming from the southwestern United States and some Eastern States. |
