Cull cows and their feeding habits are at the center of research underway at North Dakota State University’s Hettinger Research Extension Center. The study is being done in cooperation with South Dakota State University. The Center’s Michelle Stamm says the multi-state southwest feeders project is monitoring the feeding of a group of cull cows for 100 days and then will send the cows to slaughter. The cows will be fed in one of three ways: some cows have a self-feeder type diet of commercial product with grain, some cows are being fed with local barley silage and barley grain and the last group of cows is being fed a corn and hay diet. Michelle says the project is tracking the input costs going into the feeding of the cull cows and is also looking at what the producer would earn when the cows go to slaughter.

Cull cows make up around 16 percent of ranch income. Michelle says she has talked to feed industry producers in Iowa in the past and they indicated they finished rather well with the cull cow market.