As we head for the turn of the year, it’s a good time to take a step back and assess how fodder reserves are holding up and how stock are performing. This year more than any, with silage and straw in short supply, efficient use of cow body condition can help manage the expensive winter period.

Of every animal you produce on your farm, 75% of all the variable costs of getting it to the point of sale are feed costs. Of these, a large proportion are racked up by the cow during the winter period. Therefore, anything we can do, such as reduce the amount of feed required by the cow during the winter, or reduce the overall length of winter feeding for the cow, will have a massive impact in reducing annual feed costs leaving more money in your pocket.

There are a number of ways to approach this matter, but from an overall picture of suckler beef production we can look at cow size. Bigger cows are going to take more feed to carry them through the winter period. If we are heading in the direction of carcase weight limits do we need 800kg+ cows on the farm?

Dealing with the problem on a more immediate timescale, what can we do to reduce feed costs this winter?

The Farmers Journal, ANM Group and Farm Profit Programme held a focus groups day at Thainstone last Wednesday, with one of the four topics covered being Body Condition Scoring (BCS) and the benefits of feeding to BCS can have over the winter.

What is BCS?

When we BCS, we are measuring the cow’s body fat reserves. These fat reserves are an energy store for the cow that she can use in times of under-nutrition and store up in times of surplus nutrition.

It’s measured on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being a completely emaciated cow with zero fat reserves and 5 being a cow that is as fat as can be. While it’s easy to distinguish between a 1 and a 5, typically cows will hover between BCS 2 and 4 throughout the year.

Why is it important?

While BCS is important throughout the year, there are a couple of critical times per year when having cow BCS correct can be the difference between life and death, productivity and non-productivity and ultimately for us as farmers, profit and loss.

How to BCS

There are three sites where we BCS cows. The first is on the long ribs (Picture 1). The second is on the loin or short ribs (Picture 2) and the third is at the tail head (Picture 3). The level of fat cover in these areas will determine the overall BCS.

Ribs

If you can see individual long ribs without placing your hand on the animal, this would suggest a BCS of below 2.5. If, when you feel across the ribs with an open palm you feel a nice cover of fat over the bones, this would suggest a BCS of over 3.5.

Loin

Along the loin there are four individual bones that stick out from the spine. Again, if you can distinguish each of the individual vertebra with light pressure of an open palm you have a BCS of under 2.5. IF it takes considerable pressure of your hand to be able to feel the individual vertebra, BCS is greater than 3.5.

Tail head

Here we are assessing how difficult it is to pinch a layer of fat at either side of the base of the tail head. On a well fleshed animal the tail head will physically fill with a layer of fat. At a BCS of 2.5 you won’t be able to pinch a great amount of fat, it will be mostly skin. While at 3.5 when you pinch at the tail head you will have a large wedge of fat between your fingers.

When we assess the animal over the three areas we then average the three scores and give her an overall score out of 5.

Targets for spring-calving cows

The key target for cows is at calving time. Get this right and the rest should fall into place. For a spring-calving cow, we want her in a BCS of 2.5. Here we’re trying to strike a balance between not having a cow over-fat as that is going to cause calving difficulties, versus too thin which will reduce milk production and delay the onset of her reproductive cycle.

Breeding is the second time-critical point for BCS. Getting cows back in calf in sufficient time to calve again in 365 days is critically important for a profitable suckler herd. If a cow is in poor condition going to the bull she is not going to be cycling. The hormones in her body will tell her that her energy reserves are not sufficient to support another pregnancy and so she will delay cyclic activity.

Post calving cows will lose some condition so if she calves at 2.5, we want her no less than 2.25 at breeding. At this stage she should also be on an increasing plane of nutrition and so increasing body fat reserves. This will kick-start reproductive activity.

The final target for BCS has just passed at weaning/housing time. Coming into sheds for winter you ideally want all cows in a BCS of 3.5. This means the cow has a nice fat reserve that we can utilise over the winter period to reduce feed costs. Remember we are targeting a BCS of around 2.5 at calving. Utilising this condition needs to be a slow and steady decline, typically over the first half of the winter period.

Often we BCS at housing time without even knowing we are doing so. We will split cows into thin ones that need a bit more TLC and fatter ones that can afford to lose some condition for the winter.

If you haven’t already done this, there is still time to do so. Ideally you should have three batches of cows. Thin cows (hopefully not many), cows that need to be maintained in current BCS, ie 2.5, and cows that can lose condition prior to calving.

Cows in good condition can have silage restricted by 12-15 kg/day over the first half of the winter. This can lead to a saving of £30-£35/cow over the winter period – a significant saving.

Advice for feeding thin cows is a little more difficult. Any effort to increase cow condition will more than likely be put straight into the growing calf inside her – increasing the likelihood of calving difficulties. Feed just over maintenance levels for these cows and once calved increase the level of concentrate feeding to try and increase body condition pre-breeding.

On some of the focus farms, any thin cows have been pulled out and are being fed with the first-calved heifers that need a bit more looking after as they are still growing themselves.

For next year, aim to have no cows coming into the shed in poor condition. While this can be hard to do in a year like we have just experienced with wet conditions in the back end, early weaning of cows is often more cost effective than feeding thin cows and the knock-on effects it can have for the subsequent year’s reproductive performance.