Where this one is coming from

One of our ranching friends in Lavaca County said something that stuck with us.

He said a lot of bad shipping days do not start at the trailer.

They start two or three weeks earlier, when everybody already knows a cow is getting poorer and nobody wants to make the hard call yet.

That felt worth passing along.

The fresh take

A lot of us still talk about culling like it is mostly a market decision.

Keep her a little longer. See if she turns around. Wait for the next run. Get through one more pasture move.

But Beef Quality Assurance makes a plain point that deserves more airtime:

proactive culling is also a safety practice.

BQA says cattle owners and transporters should never ship an animal they do not think can withstand the rigors of transport or marketing. It also says producers should work to cull animals earlier in the disease process, including cattle dealing with problems like lameness, pneumonia, or cancer eye, so long as drug withdrawal times are met.

That means the risky decision is often not the load itself.

It is the delay.

Why this matters more right now

Texas still had 12.1 million head of cattle and calves on January 1, 2026, according to USDA NASS. Nationally, USDA said the U.S. herd was 86.2 million head on January 1, 2026, down slightly from a year earlier.

When numbers stay tight, every cow can feel too valuable to move on from.

That is understandable.

But tight inventories can create a bad habit:

holding onto a thin, lame, older, or declining animal until the transport decision gets made too late.

BQA says that when cattle are culled proactively, they are generally in a healthier state, with slightly better body condition and less risk of becoming lame or going down on the trailer.

That is a cattle-welfare issue. It is also a people issue.

Every compromised animal that loads badly, balks hard, falls, or goes down turns a routine shipping day into a pressure-filled handling situation where somebody is more likely to get kicked, pinned, rushed, or tempted into doing something dumb in a hurry.

One simple rule we think is worth borrowing

Do not make the fitness-for-transport call with the trailer already backed in.

Make it earlier, while you still have options.

What we would change this week

If this were our place, we would do five things:

  • mark the maybe-cull cows before shipping week, not during it
  • review treatment records before anybody talks about sale or slaughter, so withdrawal times are clear
  • ask plainly which animals are getting worse, not just which ones are still standing
  • decide ahead of time who needs local care, who needs a veterinarian, and who should not be loaded
  • quit treating a down-or-nearly-down shipping decision like a test of toughness

What this looks like on a real place

Usually it is not dramatic.

It is a cow that has been shortening her stride for ten days. It is an old bull that is losing condition and takes too long to rise. It is a cancer-eye case that everybody keeps meaning to deal with next week. It is a thin cull cow that can still walk, but not well enough to handle the whole trip, the line, the unloading, and whatever comes after that.

BQA says not to ship extremely emaciated cattle with a body condition score of 2 or less, or cattle with a lameness score of 3 or more.

That is why the cleanest decision often happens before shipping day chaos starts.

A second thing worth remembering

If cattle are fit to go, the prep still matters.

BQA says cattle should have access to water up until loading. It also says a modest meal within 24 hours before transport, especially on trips longer than four hours, can improve how cattle handle travel and arrival. It also points producers to weather and temperature-humidity planning, because hot conditions and poor airflow increase transport stress.

Oklahoma State Extension adds another useful reminder: overcrowding raises stress and can cause injury, while under-loading can also let animals move too much and get hurt.

So this is not just a yes-or-no shipping question.

It is also:

How hot is it. How crowded is the trailer. How slick is the floor. How long is the haul. How much avoidable stress are we stacking onto a marginal animal.

Who we'd ask if we wanted to sharpen this up

  • Your herd veterinarian to help set real cull and euthanasia thresholds before shipping day
  • Texas Beef Quality Assurance / Texas A&M AgriLife for Texas-specific cattle care and training resources
  • BQA Transportation resources for fit-for-transport decision tools and refresher guidance
  • Your regular driver or hauler for an honest read on loading density, weather timing, and what cattle can realistically handle

What we are still watching

  • Whether tight herd numbers keep pushing more producers to hold compromised cattle too long
  • Whether more ranches start treating proactive culling as a safety system, not just a revenue decision
  • Whether heat, haul distance, and labor shortages make marginal transport calls even riskier this year

Holler if...

You have a rule on your place for when a cow is done traveling, we would like to hear it.

Maybe you made a cull call earlier than usual and saved everybody trouble. Maybe a veterinarian helped you draw a line you should have drawn sooner. Maybe a bad shipping day taught you that the real decision was missed a week before the trailer ever showed up.

That kind of detail helps the rest of us notice it sooner.

We will keep listening. Come home safe. Your cattle too.

Sources