Earlier this month, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) updated its guidance on how the technique of body condition scoring can contribute significantly to good husbandry and management of dairy cows.
Condition scoring is a technique used for assessing the body condition of livestock and Defra’s booklet explains how good welfare, good husbandry and good performance can ensure a healthy herd and be a way of avoiding costly welfare problems.
To score consistently, a farmer needs to assess the body reserves of the cow and carry out a visual inspection. Moreover, the scoring method involves a manual assessment of the thickness of fat cover and prominence of bone at the tail, head and loin area.
As Defra’s booklet points out, good management will help farmers to ensure that their cows are in the correct condition for each stage of their annual cycle, and that appropriate dietary changes can be made in order to correct any deficiencies.
The crucial periods for dairy cows are at calving and during early lactation. So achieving correct body condition at calving is important in order to avoid calving difficulties and losses. Cows should be “fit, not fat”, as fat cows may develop fatty liver disease or ketosis. However, it is a fine line, as excessively thin cows can suffer discomfort in a housing environment such as cubicles.
Condition scoring should be done during drying off, which is seven to eight weeks before calving, at pre-calving, which is three weeks before calving, and at pre-service.