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6.5 Dairy cow condition scoring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

P. M. Mulvany
P. M. Mulvany
Affiliation:
National Institute for Research in Dairying, Readi
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Extract

Records on animal performance form a basic part of management. Without records it is not possible to measure the effect of changes in management nor assess the individual performance of an animal. Condition scoring provides a means of recording body condition and may assist in monitoring changes in body reserves. However, it is of limited use if other, more significant, records are not kept. It provides an enhancement to a recording scheme in which reproduction, production health and feeding/grazing records are kept. These records should be simple. Some data are required on calvings and inseminations, milk yield and/or rate of growth, preventative and curative health measures and on the probable feed available to an animal and how this feed is utilized. Body condition scoring will provide some data for this final item.

Type
Intensive Production of Large Ruminants
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 4: Intensive Animal Production in Developing Countries , January 1981 , pp. 349 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Production 1981

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References

REFERENCES

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