What Body Condition Are Your Cattle In Early Spring

[LoveMoo11]

LoveMoo11,
I am asking how low you will let the body condition go down. I did not want to know anything about how much weight you put on the cattle in the winter. This is not a test on the different body conditions. Yes there are 1-9 pictures. If you want to see all nine pictures, go to this site:
http://www.aragriculture.org/livestock/ ... efault.htm

Chuckie

I knew what you were asking and I was just saying I can't answer your question because my BCS doesn't change much. sorry for TMI.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I wouldn't want to let a cow get down to 4. If they did, I would provide extra feed to keep them from dropping any further. But that wouldn't be "standard practice", just a stop-gap measure until we figured out WHY. If provided decent forage, minerals and kept up on vaccinations and worming, there's no reason for a cow to get in poor condition. They either aren't getting something that they need, or they are not suited to the environment they were put in.

That's interesting - I had posted after this quote but it's gone!
Anyway, my lowest is probably a low 5 on some of our 2-yr olds just prior to weaning. If something went lower than that, I'd be looking for a reason. And she probably wouldn't end up staying in our herd - either there was something wrong - or she coundn't survive our management and wouldn't end up breeding back.
If I had poor quality feed (hopefully never!) I would suppliment them to keep them in at least a 5.5 - 6 BCS (prefer 6.5 prior to calving)
The thing is - if you let them get too far down, everything else is affected for the rest of the year or 2 years. Poor calving, weak calves, poor breeding, poor milking, poor weaning weights. It just snowballs.

 

[Chuckie]

LoveMoo11,
I gotcha! I think we are on the same page, with extra added details and such.
Chuckie

 

[Beckett]

I just put 3 steers in the drylot yesterday and started supplementing them with some grain. The 3 had not been maintaining there body weight and have dropped to about a 5 score. Time to start graining before they go any lower. They rest are thriving on just hay and maintaining very well. I screwed up this fall and fed out most of my good alfalfa hay.
Anyway, If they get to a 5 i drylot them and supplement.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

So Chuckie - how about you? What do you do? Was this motivated bacause you are SEEING a lot of thin cattle in your area?

 

[TexasBred]

My nurse cow looks like a 3. Year round. She's 1/2 jersey 1/2 holstein. She sticks out like a sore thumb because the beef cows look great. 5.5 at the worst of times with a calf over winter. Most are 6's or better. But the oldest ones are coming 7 years. Age makes a difference.

Sounds like you're doing a good job Boogie...don't worry about the Jersey. You see a fat dairy cow there's a reason and it's usually because she's producing no milk, not bred or both.