diff --git a/cow/functions.c b/cow/functions.c
index 1d73860..925e65c 100755
--- a/cow/functions.c
+++ b/cow/functions.c
@@ -12,13 +12,12 @@ void extension_cow_term(xmlXPathParserContextPtr ctxt,
                            int nargs)
 {
   xmlChar *str, *ret;
-  int str_l, month;
+  int month;
   
   if (nargs != 1) {
     xmlXPathSetArityError(ctxt);
   }
   str = xmlXPathPopString(ctxt);
-  str_l = xmlUTF8Strlen(str);
 
   month = (str[5] - '0')*10 + (str[6] - '0');