Document anglais à partir du marché américain complet sur la viande de vache de réforme. For most beef and dairy producers, marketing culled cows translates to 15 to 25% of their annual income and clearly contributes to the profitability of their operation. In all production sectors, cows are routinely culled from oper ations as a result of decreased productively, efficiency and profitability. For years, cattle producers have been searching for ways to increase the profitability of their culled cows and have incorporated management decisions such as feeding culled cows prior to selling and holding cows until seasonality differences in the beef market favor increased market-cow prices (Figure 1). Regardless of what beef producers are doing or not doing to improve the profitability of culled cows, the vast majority of cows entering processing facilities result from live-auction markets, creating a tremendous amount of variation in the composition and quality of cows entering the beef market