With calving due to begin on farms, it is a good time to once again check the body condition score (BCS) of your cows.
During the dry period, you want cows to build condition ahead of calving down and entering into a new lactation.
Once a cow enters into lactation, they will naturally lose some condition. This is due to high energy demands, which can not be met by dry matter (DM) intakes.
Having cows in the correct condition score ahead of calving is extremely important, as it has been shown to reduce the risk of metabolic disorders in cows.
Over or under conditioned cows pose a potential risk for issues during the transition period, and these issues can then have a significant impact throughout the lactation.
BCS
Ideally, cows BCS should be checked prior to drying-off, and then again at drying-off.
Cows that were in a lower than ideal condition score should have been given a longer dry period in order to build condition.
These cows need to be checked to see if their BCS has improved, and if they are on track to be in the correct condition score at calving.
A lack of feed space or bullying within the shed, may mean that some cows are failing to build enough condition during the dry period.
These cows, along with any other cows that are in too low of condition score need to be separated from the main herd, and given some preferential treatment.
At calving, you want your cows to be in a condition score between 3.0 and 3.5.
Ideally, most of your cows should be fairly close to this now, as they will build very little condition between now and calving if they are due in late-January to mid-February.
Equally at risk to metabolic disorders and calving issues, are cows that are over conditioned.