This week, the Farm Profit Programme held an open meeting for the focus groups at Thainstone with a focus on three topics; gearing up for grazing, seven steps to quality silage and cow condition scoring.

The first two were looking towards the spring and setting up the season to grow, graze and harvest good yields of high quality grass.

The third, cow condition scoring, was a practical demonstration of the benefits of condition scoring and how to go about it.

Jack Cooper, a fourth-year student from SRUC Craibstone, designed and ran the station, with the results contributing to his degree dissertation looking at the benefits of using condition scoring dummy models to improve accuracy.

Jack’s idea was to have people condition score a group of cows and record the results.

Once they had finished, they were shown SAC Consulting’s cow condition scoring models and asked to compare their initial scoring with the models.

After this, the groups were then asked to condition score another batch of cows to see if their accuracy had improved.

Cow Condition Scoring

The first question is what is condition scoring? Condition scoring is a quick and simple technique to assess how much fat cover a cow or sheep has.

It is determined by fat cover on the short ribs.

Why condition score?

It’s very simple. If you can measure it, you can manage it. Assessing cows at strategic points throughout the year allows better management decisions to be made on nutrition, leading to less calving problems and better fertility.

A spring-calving cow in October at a condition score of 3.5 or more is a great thing to have. However, if she is still in that condition come calving time, that is not as good, as the layer of internal fat will lead firstly to calving difficulties and then to poorer fertility.

Using the condition score information allows nutritional decisions to be tailored to give the best effect.

The key point to aim for is calving. Spring cows should calve down at condition 2.5 and autumn cows should calve down at no more than condition 3. This means that to reach these targets, we need to know where we are starting from.

The start point is generally weaning, as that is usually far enough out from calving for alterations to be made.

Cows are generally being handled at that point, so it is simply a matter of adding another operation in.

Where space and groupings allow, three pens are ideal. This means that we can have a fat pen, an optimum pen and a thin pen.

If the space or grouping does not fit, there are other ways of handling this, such as grouping thin cows with heifers for the first part of the winter.

The thin group will need to be treated well to raise their body condition. However, it is first worth understanding why they are thin, especially if the majority of the herd are not.

There can be a number of reasons for this, such as underlying health issues like fluke or worms (check with a dung sample to the vet), the animal’s physical type or being a younger, perhaps first-calved heifer. Animals with health issues first need to be treated.

Once treatments are complete, these cows can be fed at a level above maintenance to bring their condition up prior to calving.

An average cow gaining one condition score over winter will need to eat an extra 2,250 megajoules of energy

However, they cannot be overfed, as this can lead to too much fat deposition over winter and calving difficulties will ensue.

Straw, silage and a small amount of concentrates such as barley should be sufficient to raise their condition.

An average cow gaining one condition score over winter will need to eat an extra 2,250 megajoules of energy. This is equivalent to 0.85t of an average silage.

Cows that are in optimal condition (condition score 2.5-3) need to be fed straw- and silage-based diets to maintain their condition, but there should be no need to add additional concentrates.

Finally, there are the fat cows, those above condition score 3. These are the most cost-effective cows to winter.

Taking one condition score off an average cow means the loss of around 70kg of bodyweight.

Being able to manage the condition in this way not only has each cow in optimum condition come calving, it also means that feed costs can be saved

As the cow mobilises the fat, the energy tied up in it is released to her, to contribute to her daily energy requirements.

This process releases around 2,000mj to the cow over winter. This is equivalent to 0.75t of the same average silage as before.

Being able to manage the condition in this way not only has each cow in optimum condition come calving, it also means that feed costs can be saved on the fat cows.

In addition, with the thin cows grouped away from the herd, they can be fed to requirement without overfeeding the rest.

When should I condition score?

As previously mentioned, condition scoring starts at weaning, to establish winter rations.

By this point in the year, the cows should be settled on their winter rations.

Now is a good time to see if everything is occuring as planned.

It is not ideal to bring the entire herd out and through the handling systems if not needed, so sampling a representative number from each group will give an indication if the cattle are in the condition expected or not.

Big changes to the ration to either gain or lose large amounts of condition at this point will lead to greater trouble come calving

If not, alterations can be made to the ration to achieve the outcome desired.

However, by this stage, it is too late for drastic action. Big changes to the ration to either gain or lose large amounts of condition at this point will lead to greater trouble come calving. Smaller changes are possible, and cows that are a long way off expected condition will need to be managed carefully from now on and closely monitored at calving.

For more information, the QMS website has both videos and print directions for condition scoring cattle, as does the FÁS website. We thank Jack for his input on the day and look forward to seeing the results from his trial when they become available.