• Body condition score (BCS)

How are your cows tracking with their BCS? Drying off based on cow condition is a great first step towards securing optimal production and reproduction performance next season. A timely dry off is only part of the process – adequate feeding to achieve calving BCS targets following drying off is crucial.
Mature cows (aged 4 and over) will take an average of six weeks to put on a condition score (e.g., from BCS 4 to BCS 5). This is on top of the time when no condition gain happens which is during the two weeks post-drying off and in the last month of gestation when the calf is taking up most of the nutrients.
If you have plenty of good supplement, you could speed this process up to 4-5 weeks. But that still means a total dry period of 4 + 6 = 10 weeks. So, have your cows got enough time to get there?
However, this is only guesswork unless you measure:
– Do you know the quality of your supplement?
– Do you know how much your cows have gained since drying off; are they on track to reach calving target?
– Do you know your cows’ requirements vs their intake?
A check in from an accredited BCS assessor can put your mind at ease that either: they’re tracking well so keep doing what you’re doing, or some tweaks might be needed. It’s better to know this earlier so you have time to intervene – a good timeframe is 4-5 weeks after drying off. It doesn’t mean you have to individually score either – a quick jump into the paddock to score a proportion of the cows gives a quick idea on where they’re headed.

• Check their mineral status

Ensure your herd’s mineral balance is right – if you haven’t booked your liver biopsies/trace element testing, please do so now to be able to supplement cows to requirement. There’s no need to spend money on unnecessary minerals – which is quite often the case!

• Prevent illness and vaccinate

– Rotavirus: a scour vaccination will increase the available amount of antibodies to newborn calves (provided your colostrum management is up to scratch!). Antibodies will fight scour pathogens the moment they enter the calf’s system thereby preventing (or in some cases significantly reducing) symptoms.
– Salmonella: a fast-acting wasting and scour disease for your cows and detrimental to your herd. It’s also a potential risk to any staff as it can spread to humans.
– Lepto: a prevention not only for your cows, but once again, it’s also a risk for you and anyone else in contact with your herd.
Once you know the specific risk to your herd, you can take appropriate action – so chat to your vet if you’d like to know more.

• Keep a record of your cows’ lameness status

Preventative hoof trimming during the dry period will help to reset the proper hoof shape, restore the weight bearing surface and remove existing lesions. This will also give your cows the best start to the new season and help to reduce lameness.

Chat with your Anexa vet as we’re here to work together for better results:
– If you need help with planning or compliance.
– If you have a particular production goal to reach for next season.
– If you want some tools or protocols to help manage your staff. Don’t forget about our annual farm staff training in June too.