Cull cow prices this week

Breaker, boner and lean cow averages across all reporting barns

• Boner cows (80–85% lean) averaged $139.16/cwt on 4,719 head at reporting barns this week - roughly $1,670 for a 1,200 lb cow before commission.
• Slaughter bulls averaged $178.90/cwt on 1,894 head.
• Bob veal calves - day-old dairy bull calves, mostly 80–115 lb - averaged $574.23/cwt on 253 head, about $574 a head at 100 lb. They are quoted per cwt like everything else, which is why the number looks nothing like a mature animal's.

Head-weighted averages across all tracked barns reporting in the last 8 days. Individual sales vary widely with condition and dressing.

Reading the weigh-up market

Cull cows are most operations' second income line, and the weigh-up section of an auction report is where that money shows. Cows sell by dressing grade rather than frame score, and the per-cwt money is lower than feeder prices but the animals are heavier, so the checks are real. High-dressing individual cows routinely top the printed average; the per-barn ledgers carry a high-dressing line where USDA reports one.

Common questions

What do breaker, boner and lean mean?

They are USDA dressing grades for slaughter cows, by estimated lean content. Breakers (75-80% lean) are fleshier cows in good condition; boners (80-85%) are the big middle of the weigh-up market; leans (85-90%) are thinner cows that yield less and usually bring less per cwt.

What is a cull cow worth right now?

Multiply the boner average by your cow's weight in cwt: at this week's $139.16/cwt, a 1,200 lb boner cow is about $1,670 before commission. Condition moves a cow across grades, and each barn's ledger prices them separately.

Why is the bob veal line hundreds of dollars per cwt?

Because a bob veal calf weighs about 100 lb, not 1,400. These are day-old dairy bull calves sold at a handful of northeastern and Indiana barns, priced per hundredweight like every other class, so $700/cwt is roughly $700 a head. They are counted separately from slaughter bulls here: several barns head that section plainly “BULLS”, and folding 100 lb calves into the mature bull average overstated it by about a third.

Why are cull cow prices quoted separately from feeder prices?

Different buyers. Feeder cattle go to grazing programs and feedyards; weigh-up cows and bulls go to packers, mostly for ground beef and trim, so the two markets move on different supply and demand.

Feeder market: steer prices by weight. Every number's source is on the barn pages.