Dairy
At this stage of the lactation, as things quieten down, body condition scoring your herd should begin to commence.
With drying off for autumn calving herds set to take place in the next couple of weeks, the body condition score (BCS) of your herd will...
For spring calving cows, it is a good time of the year to assess the body condition score (BCS) of your cows to allow for plenty...
Sheep
Ensuring ewes have time to recuperate is an important consideration while farmers are weaning lambs their flocks.
The maintenance of body condition score (BCS) is a key factor in determining cow fertility rates on all dairy farms.
Dairy Technical
Fat cows are something that need to be closely monitored, with these cows being 'high risk' for issues around calving.
It is important that after calving cows are closely monitored to ensure that excess body condition is not being lost.
A priority for sheep farmers that are aiming to lamb in the spring is to ensure they will have sufficient grass cover for grazing ewes.
Monitoring of body condition score (BCS) in winter milk cows is important at this stage of lactation, to ensure excess condition is not lost.
Cows have entered the final third of their lactation and although many cows will continue to milk into early December, BCS should not be forgotten.
The quality of feeding in the dry period and early lactation is important in achieving good herd fertility.
BCS loss is due to cows entering a negative energy balance post-calving; as a cow’s dry matter intake fails to meet her energy requirements.
For March-lambing flocks, it is important farmers keep an eye on their ewes' body condition over the coming weeks.
There are several metabolic diseases that can affect cows around calving with many of these due to not having optimum body condition score.
Correct management of cows during this time period is vital to ensure a successful transition from late pregnancy to early lactation.
It's often overlooked and not often monitored enough on sheep farms, but BCS ewes in the lead up to the lambing season should be a priority.
With many farms drying off cows at present, consideration should be given to the body condition of the herd.
Even though the breeding season won't be kicking off on many sheep farms until October/November, preparations must begin now for it.
Rapid body condition score (BCS) loss post-calving can cause health implications or failure to go back in-calf in the future.
With the lambing season fast approaching for many mid-season lambing flocks, now is the time to check out what condition ewes are in.
Numerous metabolic diseases can affect a cow around calving with many of these the result of BCS and through incorrect mineral feeding.
The focus is slowly turning on spring-calving farms to getting the cow prepared, in terms of body condition, for calving this spring.
One of the key components of setting your cows up for next spring is having them at the correct body condition score (BCS) at drying off.
