COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

Not just age, but I suspect the longer they keep them, the more it costs to keep them. Everything has a shelf life, and unfortunately that includes animals. It seems a waste to me, but I don't know what goes on behind the scenes there.
Cost of continued feeding is certainly part of it. I don't know how it translates across the meat spectrum but I've often heard re: chickens that the process can't deviate too far from certain norms. Chickens get too big and the processing doesn't work as well. Take that with a grain of salt but it does make sense that equipment has limitations and the livestock needs to be within certain parameters.