What is the lowest BCS for healthy cattle?

[True Grit Farms]

Our cattle our starting to look not so good. And the end of the drought is nowhere in site. Most years we count on the winter grazing to slick them back off after a hard fall push. This year is going to be sparse at best. I'm not sure how far a cow can go before it's health becomes an issue.

 

[angus9259]

Your tag line is interesting in light of this thread

 

[Supa Dexta]

To get em bred again after they calve, you really want to be aiming for a 5 by that time. 4 and lower and they start to have diminished calving performance, and short the calf. Some old girls can do it, but you risk trouble as a whole. Heifers should have a touch more reserve put on them.

 

[TCRanch]

Our vet recommends at least a solid 5 for cows, 6 for heifers. A couple of ours tip the scales

 

[BobbyLummus1]

good question , I think I feed too much in the winter . Or havent been leaving the calves on them long enough , My cows are fat . last two years have been dry . Sure hope I get some fall fescue growth

 

[jerry27150]

if they are losing weight I would be feeding something, whether hay or grain

 

[Son of Butch]

Since the question was phrased "the lowest" I'd say 4
As Supa Dexta pointed out 4 would diminish returns, but they could still get by health wise and as I'm sure you realize 4 is certainly not ideal or recommended.

 

[True Grit Farms]

We're going to start grinding feed sometime next week. My guess is our BCS is around 4 and I was starting to worry, as it turns out for good reason. It's going to be an interesting this year, everything is in poor shape. The hay, pastures and winter grazing all stink, but corn is fairly cheap and cotton seed is the same price as last year. I want to tighten up the expenses with the price of calves, but not at the cost of loosing any cows.

 

[gizmom]

If you have access to gin trash it might be an option, especially if hay is in short supply.

gizmom

 

[Nesikep]

I was thinking what Son of Butch said.. you can probably get by with a BCS of 4 and not be terribly hurt by it, but it'll also depend on what you're expecting of them.. If they've already been bred and they're at a BCS of 4, that's a big hurdle gone, though if they're still milking, that's going to be hard on them and the calves. (it's been said that a cow/calf pair eats as much as 3, and I definitely agree)
If you're going into the winter at a BCS of 4 and you have hard winters they may suffer.. being in Georgia I don't think that's as big a problem as for someone in the Dakotas..
Biggest problem will be breed back next year.. the mature cows should handle it OK, but any that are lower on the pecking order and still growing will have a double whammy against them (and they might be BCS 3 by that time)

 

[Chocolate Cow]

I'm sure you know about cotton seed and it's effects on bull fertility but if not:
http://cotton.tamu.edu/General%20Produc ... 1311_2.pdf

page 7

 

[wbvs58]

I think they can be healthy on a lower body score than you would think. I have never had any trouble getting them in calf when they are a bit light on and would actually prefer them to be a bit lighter than in prime condition. I guess it all depends on which way they are heading though. If they are still losing then you are in trouble.

Ken

 

[Caustic Burno]

I'm sure you know about cotton seed and it's effects on bull fertility but if not:
http://cotton.tamu.edu/General%20Produc ... 1311_2.pdf

page 7

It has another wired effect on heifers as well with metabolism.
Now that said I have supplemented with a 2-1-1 since they invented dirt in the times of need.
You can satisfy a cows nutrition needs on 3 pounds of feed a day the problem in a drought where you going to get the next 27 lbs to fill her up.
2011 woke up a lot of people here about their management a lot are no longer with us either.

 

[greybeard]

I'm sure you know about cotton seed and it's effects on bull fertility but if not:
http://cotton.tamu.edu/General%20Produc ... 1311_2.pdf

page 7

It has another wired effect on heifers as well with metabolism.
Now that said I have supplemented with a 2-1-1 since they invented dirt in the times of need.
You can satisfy a cows nutrition needs on 3 pounds of feed a day the problem in a drought where you going to get the next 27 lbs to fill her up.
2011 woke up a lot of people here about their management a lot are no longer with us either.

The old "feeding your way out of a drought" problem....
and I think we are just seeing the beginning of this cycle too.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Feeding your way out drought caused a lot to go broke.
GB and I witnessed that. My philosophy of there is no such thing as too much hay saved my butt.

 

[Supa Dexta]

So you fed your way out of a drought?

 

[Caustic Burno]

So you fed your way out of a drought?

I sold 70% of the girls to save the pastures and supplemented 30%.
So yes and no as 70% of some good cows went to hamburger I normally would not have sold and I wasn't overstocked.
There was no way to feed the entire bunch through a multi year drought saving the pastures from expensive renovations. I am a grass farmer converting grass to beef to cash.
We had the good fortune that kill cow prices stayed up through the drought.
I never restocked after the drought either just bought opportunities to run spring through summers until this year and I have been buying. At my age I know I will sell most of these heifers when prices come back to a normal level.
Lot of hard decisions to be made in a drought most that tried to hang on to everything went belly up and out completely here.
You can drive for miles still today places that had cattle for generations have empty pastures.
It is not the health of the herd you have to look at it is how to keep the whole place healthy.
Doesn't do you any good to feed the entire bunch through and take years and cash to get the pasture health back after the drought

 

[Cross-7]

Lots of pasture ground in west Texas that was ruined or say has not recovered.
What was grass turf is now grown up in weeds and mesquite.
They kept hanging on and shipping in hay.
A place I had in west Texas was mostly Klein grass
It was grazed and not abused and cattle pulled off summer 2011.
When the rain finally came most of the Klein didn't come back and in its place came Arizona cotton top.(pretty much worthless imo)
Some stemmy type bluestem popped up in places.
Mesquite thrived.
Mother Nature doesn't like bare ground and will put something in that will grow and hold soil.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I'm starting to see the effects of pasture abuse here already. I figure on chisel plowing my pastures and re-seeding some more Tif-9 bahia this spring. Hopefully it'll smooth the pastures out some, aerate the soil and break the hard pan up. But if it doesn't rain by spring it'll get interesting. We're set up to make it on 12"-15" of rain per year, but 7" for the year just doesn't cut it. At least there's plenty of hay within 3 hours of me.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Crazy how a couple hundred miles makes so much difference, I was in east georgia late summer, and it rained there near daily.

Fall rains have set in here, been raining near straight for a week now.