Removal of inferior animals from a group of breeding stock. The removal is premature, i.e. before completion of its life span, disposal of an animal from a herd or other group. In farm animals this means disposal because of their being superfluous to the needs of the group to maintain its size. Animals may be culled because of age, either because thay are too old or because they are very young and their retention would necessitate culling an older, more desirable animal. Animals may also be culled because of disease, failure to produce or reproduce, because of inherited defects or because of undesirable conformation or breed type. There are two general classes of culls, involuntary culls, e.g. deaths, and voluntary culls, e.g. age culls.
- biological c. — culling of animals on the biological grounds of incapacity to pass a productivity test.
- c. program — a set of rules for a manager to follow in carrying out culling within a herd.
- c. rate — the number of animals culled as a proportion of the number of animals from which the culling was done.
