Your Opportunity to Improve Mating Performance

Besides calving date, body condition score is one of the biggest influences on reproductive performance in a seasonally calving dairy herd.

In a profitable farming system, nothing hits the bottom line harder than an empty cow. Right now, the value difference is stark:

• In-calf dairy cow: around $3,000

• Empty cull cow: around $1,500

That’s a $1,500 difference per animal. For a herd of 400 cows, every 2% difference in empty rate can add up to $12,000 lost or gained. 

Early-calving cows have more time to recover and resume cycling before mating starts. However, body condition also matters enormously. Cows that calve at target BCS have greater energy reserves to buffer the nutritional challenges of calving, early lactation and changing feed supply.

Thin cows and cows that continue to lose excessive condition after calving generally take longer to resume cycling. They are less likely to have a heat before mating starts and are at greater risk of poor six-week in-calf performance.

The usual targets are:

• Mature cows: BCS 5.0 at calving

• First and second calvers: BCS 5.5 at calving

• No more than one BCS lost between calving and mating

  
  

Average herd BCS can hide the cows most at risk. Individual-cow body condition scoring allows thin cows and vulnerable first and second-calvers to be identified early enough to manage them differently.

Depending on the farm and the cows involved, interventions may include:

• Moving selected cows to once-a-day milking

• Running a separate preferentially managed herd

• Providing better-quality or higher-energy feed

• Reducing walking and competition

• Prioritising thin first and second calvers

• Monitoring whether cows are stabilising or continuing to lose condition

  
  

  

Timing is important. A BCS assessment immediately before mating may identify the problem, but it leaves very little time to change the outcome.

Book an individual-cow BCS assessment with FVM as soon as possible. This gives us time to identify the cows most at risk and help you put a practical plan in place before mating.