How to Body Condition Score Your Cattle
On yesterday’s program we learned the value of doing Body Condition Scores on each of your cows. Today, Washington State University Northwest Regional Dairy and Livestock Specialist Dr. Susan Kerr discuss the specifics on the how.Kerr: “When I describe Body Condition Scoring, I want to mention the scale which is generally for cattle one to nine. Just to make thing simple, we can group them into three categories: one, two, three are various degrees of too thin; four,five,six are good or moderate; and seven, eight, nine is too fat. All of them on an increasing scale — so one is emaciated animal - can’t possible be any thinner and nine is really obese and unhealthy.”
Ideally, Dr. Kerr says the best way to score your cattle is using your hands, not just your eyes, especially this time of year when cattle have their thick winter coats which can sometimes make the scoring a little tricky.
Kerr: “To Body Condition Score you check several landmarks on an animal’s body: you check their backbone, their tail head, a couple of places on their rump and pelvis — called the hooks and pins; their brisket and over their ribs. And you are asking yourself, ‘Are they bony? Or do they feel covered with muscles and with or without fat? If there is fat, is it bulging fat?’ You make all of these decisions and put a score on it. You can go online and do a search for Body Condition Scoring of cattle and see charts to help you learn to do this.”