Many farmers have started to dry off their first calvers and their thin cows, and perhaps they should body condition score (BCS) the rest of the herd to identify what needs to be dried off next in an effort to manage their condition.
Farmers can become complacent when they dry off the first few cows, as they might think that they have all of the skinnier cows dried off and that the rest of the herd can be dried based on dates.
However, there might be one or two cows that were missed in the last round of drying off or have been under pressure milking in the last few weeks that might have to be dried off as soon as possible.
Decisions need to be made on a cow-to-cow basis and using the BCS of individual animals will help the farmer identify what is going on in the herd.
BCS is a good indicator of long-term energy balance, which is the difference between feed energy and that used for milk and maintenance.
Genetics, internal parasites and lameness also have a huge effect on BCS and should be factored into the breeding plan, the dosing plan and the hoof health plan.
However, as we are now into the final stages of the lactation, the main tool for managing BCS is the time allocated for dry off and the feed intake and quality of feed that cow’s receive.
Managing BCS
The standard dry off period across the board is 60-75 days and if cows are dried off with a BCS of 2.75 and are eating decent quality silage of 68-70% dry matter digestibility (DMD) for this period, the cows should calve down at the target BCS.
The target BCS for cows calving down is 3.25 with an acceptable range of 0.25 units above or below this point.
First lactation animals and where BCS and/or silage quality is below target, the animals should be given a 90-day dry off period.
Poor quality silage has a double effect of poor dry matter intakes and low energy content and where this is the case, extra supplementation should be added to the dry cow’s diet.
Overly fat cows need to be monitored as well and may need their silage restricted to stop them running into metabolic issues like going down with milk fever at calving.
Act early to have cows in correct BCS next spring and carry out the following:
- Assess quality and quantity of feed available;
- Record the BCS of each cow in the herd now;
- Identify the calving date and subsequently dry off date for each cow;
- Assign each cow to a management plan to meet target BCS of 3.25 at calving;
- Batch cows according to BCS over the winter period to feed accordingly.
Getting your silage tested is paramount to making sure your cows are getting an adequate amount of feed to help them put on condition over the dry period.
