What milk and feed figures should I use?

Use a typical recent daily yield, not the cow’s lifetime peak, and the feed cost of what she actually eats. Milk price should be what you receive after quality deductions. Use the same currency for every field.

Does a “cull” result mean I must sell her today?

No. It means the numbers you entered point to a weak economic case to keep her in the milking herd. Pregnancy, a treatable health issue, or a shortage of replacements can still justify waiting.

Why do days open matter so much?

Every extra empty day delays the next lactation. A cow that looks profitable this week can still be a poor slot if she has been open for many months. Pregnancy diagnosis belongs in the same decision.

Can DairyLogs help with culling later?

Yes. Yield, health, breeding, and expense records on the animal are what this worksheet approximates. Recording them daily is how a keep-or-cull meeting stops being an argument about memory.

— Tools · Herd

Culling decision calculator

Enter today’s milk, your milk price, feed cost, veterinary spend, reproduction status, and lactation number. The calculator scores keep, watch, or cull using income over feed cost — a planning aid, not a sale order.

Cow economics

Use the same currency for milk price, feed, vet, and replacement. Yield should be a typical recent day, not her lifetime peak.

Keep · score 85

The numbers favour keeping her

Score is 0–100 from milk income, feed, vet cost, pregnancy or open days, lactation number, and replacement cost.

Milk income / day: 1,600
Income over feed / day: 700
Margin after vet / day: 659
≈ 305-day margin: 200,966

Income over feed cost is comfortably positive.
Open days are still in a workable breeding window.
Her yearly margin still looks able to cover the cost of replacing her.

Not a sale order

Mastitis chronicity, lameness, genetic merit, and beef value are not in this score. Use farm accounts and the cow in front of you before you cull.

How this calculator works

Income over feed cost (IOFC) is milk income minus feed. Veterinary cost is spread across the year. Pregnancy, long days open, and later lactations then adjust the score, because an empty older cow is a different economic animal than a pregnant second-lactation cow at the same yield.

If you enter a replacement cost, the tool compares her annualised margin with spreading that replacement cost over the lactations she likely has left. A cheap replacement does not automatically mean cull — a high-yielding pregnant cow can still win.

This is not a full farm model. It ignores beef value, disease (Johne’s, mastitis chronicity), genetic merit, and stall pressure. Use it to structure the conversation, then decide with the cow in front of you and your own accounts.

Related: Reports · Finance

— FAQ

Herd calculator questions

Cull from records, not memory

DairyLogs keeps milk, feed cost, vet bills, and open days on each animal so keep-or-cull meetings use the same numbers this calculator is asking for.

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