Body condition scoring seems like an easy enough task at first glance, but it is more than just examining your own cows each day as they come into milk. For all of us, the benefit of having a second pair of eyes take the time to assess a herd, that they are not seeing every day, means that we can differentiate between the normal routine of seeing our own cows and assessing the herd against what is being observed in other herds. This is the advantage of having a periodic assessment performed by an Accredited Body Condition Scorer.
Here are five benefits of hitting BCS targets for the late lactation/drying-off period (and five reasons why a second pair of “accredited” eyes is a good idea):
 

• Timing of drying off can be timed more accurately against feed availability (which seems to be see-sawing this summer) and current BCS 
• If late season change to once-a-day milking is contemplated, this process can be fine tuned 
• Cows will be better set up to successfully navigate the transition period 
• Cows will be, potentially, better set up to minimize BCS losses into the early lactation period 
• Cows are likely to have better reproduction and production outcomes if set up well for body condition through the dry period.