UNITED STATES OF MINNESOTA BODY CONDITlON SCORING

Uve weight ch ange is a poor estimate of tissue mobilization in lactating dairy cows because it is confounded due to increases in dry matter intake and gut fill and changes in tissue composition that occur in the postpartum period. Therefore body condition scoring has received considerable attention as a means to estimate tissue mobilization and fat reserves in lactating dairy cows (3,6). There are differect scoring systems, such as O to 5 in England and O to 9 in beef animals, but the most common system in use in the US in dairy cows uses a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being emaciated, 2 thin, 3 average, 4 fat, and 5 obese (6). It is common to divide the scale into 0.25 point increments. Researchers in Californina have developed a ch art to facilitate scoring cows (1). Body condition scoring has not been widely adopted for use as a tool for management decisions. Reasons for this probably are associated with the lack of data quantifying body condition change in lactating cows. This paper will present a summary of data we have collected to assess body score change. Quantlfylng Body Condition Previously we have described that body condition change correlates weil wit