Body Condition Scoring
(Part One)
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired July 6, 2006
With Ray Nebel,
Senior Reproduction and Herd Management Specialist, Select Sires Inc.

Ray, last week you talked about locomotion scoring; this week it’s body condition scoring, the first of a two part series. Explain the scale of body condition scoring.

Just like we talked about in locomotion scoring, the scale is very similar; it’s a 1-5. In contrast, 1—the cows are extremely thin, a 2, there is a little more flesh above the hooks and pins and short ribs and tail head depression; a 3 is a little more flesh cover; a 4 is now where we are getting roundness over the hooks and pins and you can barely see the shelf of the short ribs; and a 5 is where the animal is obese. We rarely see ones and we rarely see fives. I would say at most dairy farms we are talking about 2-4 and usually a 2.25 to 3.75 is the range where probably 90 percent of the cows reside.

Would consider that the ideal body condition?

Well, the ideal body condition really depends on her stage of lactation. When a cow goes dry, we want to have her at about a 3.75, and then we want her to maintain this body condition through her dry period so that she is calving at about 3.75 to a 3.5 in that category. It is actually a little bit better to be on the slightly thin 3.5-3.75 side than to be at a 4 or 4.25. A thin cow actually has a better appetite than a cow that is a little bit obese; however, we know during the first 30 days her appetite will not keep up with her demand of milk production so she is going to lose flesh, at 30 days in milk—if she is at a 3.75 at calving—we don’t want her to go below a 2.75. It is really that change in body condition from calving to time of breeding that is important.

The right score for early lactation would be what?

Early lactation—if we shoot for, at calving, a 3.5 to 3.75 at early lactation at 60 days, let’s say we are shooting for a 2.5 to a 2.75, and then at mid lactation we should be gaining weight and be a 3, and then in late lactation to dry-off she should be at about 3.5-3.75.

Is there a right way or certain way to implement a body condition scoring system?

Excellent question. I think many people do a body condition scoring but the scores never get written down. Again we want to body condition score about once a quarter, so every 3 months we’ll come in, and ideally we are looking at the rear of the animal because we are looking at the hooks and pins, looking at the short ribs, the ribs that are flat shelved in front of the hooks and pins and we are looking at tailhead. Ideally we would go from corral to corral, again scoring somewhere between 20-25 animals where we will put down their number give them a body condition score and we’ll come back and look at days in milk and what stage of lactation they are in.

We’ll continue more next week with Ray Nebel, senior reproduction and herd management specialist at Select Sires.