As many farmers are heading into the final couple of months of the lactation with 2023 spring-calving herds, now is a good time to assess body condition scores (BCS).
Accessing the condition of your cows heading into the housed/dry period is important for a number of reasons.
Ideally, cows need to be in a BCS of 3.0-3.25 at drying-off, so they should be fairly close to that score now.
Cows with a BCS that is too low may need to be dried off earlier, but these cows will only be detected if they are scored.
BCS
When assessing a cow’s BCS, the key areas to check are the fat cover over the loin, plates and pin bones of the pelvis and tail areas using your hand.
Everyone will assign a different score to cows, that does not really matter once you are close, and more important that you are consistent with the herd.
Score 1: Individual transverse processes are fairly sharp to the touch and there is no fat around the tail head. Hip bones, tail head and ribs are visually prominent;
Score 2: Transverse processes can be identified individually when touched, but feel rounded rather than sharp. There is some tissue cover around the tail head and over the hip bones. Individual ribs are no longer obvious;
Score 3: Transverse processes can only be felt with firm pressure. Areas either side of the tail head have a fat cover that is felt easily;
Score 4: Fat cover around the tail head is evident as slight ’rounds’, and is soft to touch. Transverse processes cannot be felt even with firm pressure. Folds of fat are developing over the ribs;
Score 5: Bone structure is no longer noticeable and the animal presents a ‘blocky’ appearance. Tail head and hip bones are almost completely buried in fat, and folds of fat are apparent over the ribs. Transverse processes are completely covered by fat, and the animal’s mobility is impaired.
Assessment
Cows that are in too low of a condition score heading into drying-off pose a number of risks, with these cows more likely to have issues at calving.
When assessing cows and identifying a cows in a low BCS, the first thought for many will be to increase the amount of feed being offered to them.
But in reality the only way to add condition and is to reduce the energy demand on the cow.
At the tail end of the year once-a-day (OAD) milking is likely not going to be option on many farms.
The best option is to dry this cows off early and allow them to build condition, which is likely going to be the choice of most farmers.
Once a cow is no longer producing milk she should increase condition. However, if you are doing this you need to be careful.
These cows should be kept separate from other cows and monitored closely, as cows can become over conditioned which can lead to issues at calving.
It is very much a fine balance between getting cows in the right condition score and them becoming over conditioned.