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 have to be assessed.
Typically, the majority of autumn calving cows are likely to calf in October in order to meet their liquid milk requirements.
With this in mind, it is important to start assessing BCS now, as doing so will give you an opportunity to identify cows in poor condition that need a longer dry period and higher quality feed.
Eight weeks is the optimal amount of time for a cow to be dry for, in order to sufficiently prepare her for the next lactation. Six weeks is the absolute minimum.
Some cows will need to be offered a longer dry period, such as cows that are finishing up their first lactation and those that are under condition.
A lot of these cows may need 10 to 12 weeks to recover from their first lactation or to put on more condition.
Body condition score
Some cows may be lacking a bit of condition ahead of drying off, which should not be a major issue as there is still plenty of time for them to put on condition before calving
It is crucial for a cow to have the correct BCS at calving to ensure an easy calving and a successful lactation.
Ensuring that cows are in good condition at calving will also lead to good conception rates, reduced culling, and better milk solids production.
The target BCS for cows at calving is 3.25, with an acceptable range of 0.25 units above or below.
The general rule of thumb is that every condition score (~50kg) below target at calving results in the cow milking 450L less during the next lactation and leads to reduced fertility.
There is also concern over cows that have too much condition at calving (>3.5), as it can lead to metabolic diseases, such as ketosis or milk fever.
Given that farmers are drying off in a couple of weeks, if a cow has a BCS that is too low or too high, it gives farmers plenty time to correct the condition score of your cows throughout the dry period.
Fat cows should be grouped separately and allocated a limited amount of feed so that they do not put on more condition, while skinny cows should be dried off earlier and allocated a high quality silage ad lib until they put on condition.
Most farms will have completed a scan or have data from health detection systems to determine the expected calving date of each cow.
Knowing that date of calving along with the body condition score of each cow is essential for feeding the cow and vital to ensure that cows are given enough time dry ahead of calving.
