Farmers failing to recognise importance of body condition scoring

Dairy farmers are underestimating the importance of using body condition scoring (BCS) to prevent health issues post-calving.

Speaking at Livestock 2012, Finbar Mulligan, from Dublin University, said many farmers were ignoring the most important tool for monitoring cow health during transition.

He said: “Farmers have known about body condition scoring for years and they are still not doing it.”

Dr Mulligan said many producers couldn’t recognise if they had over-conditioned or thin animals.

He said BCS was very easy to learn and was not only a key management tool during calving, but also needed to be maintained throughout the cow’s entire lactation and dry period.

He said farmers should score and record cows at drying-off, at calving, during AI and pre-breeding examinations, as well as three times after 150 days into milking.

Speaking at another seminar looking into metabolic disease and fertility, James Husband, from Evidence Based Veterinary Consultancy, highlighted the importance of BCS in preventing metabolic disease, which he said could impact heavily on the fertility of animals.

“Negative energy balance is strongly linked with metabolic diseases such as displaced abomasums and ketosis, which have a great impact on fertility and immune health.”

Mr Husband said metabolic disease could not only delay cycling after calving, but it could also reduce egg quality.

He said cows should have a BCS of between 2.5 and 3.0 at drying-off and calving.

“If you have cows going over this, there could be a group problem with cows being overfed.”

By adjusting the ratio of protein to energy in the diet, energy balance can be restored, which will prevent problems further down the line.

Mr Husband also warned that cows in the far-off dry period should not be overfed.

“Energy requirement in dry cows is low – 5-7kg of straw and grass silage is adequate.”

Mr Husband said high potassium in the immediate pre-calving ration should be avoided, as it increases the risk of milk fever.

“First-cut grass silage is high risk, so take out high potassium silage and make sure magnesium is well supplemented,” he added.

Calving problems hit fertility

• Analysis of eight herds by Ed Hayes from the Endell Vet Group found an average milk fever and retained cleansings incidence of 5%
  
• A cow that develops milk fever is four times more likely to be culled before 100 days post-calving
  
• An animal with a retained cleansing was shown to have a 25% lower 100-day in-calf rate