Owl Farm

Farmwatch

Region: Waikato

The Scott Farm benchmark herd was dried off last week to ensure all cow body condition score (BCS) and pasture cover targets are reached by the end of May. A 450 kg crossbred cow requires 185 kgDM of pasture above maintenance to gain one condition score. This will take between 6 and 7 weeks feeding the cow 10 kgDM/cow per day. Some supplements are more efficient for weight gain as outlined on page 49 of the Body Condition Scoring Guide at this link, it has all the details regarding feed type, cow breed and weight gain. body-condition-scoring-reference-guide.pdf (dairynz.co.nz)

The available period for condition score gain starts 7 – 10 days after drying off (for maintenance feeding to allow the cow to dry off) to one month before calving when weight gain is unlikely. For most farms now we have a window of about 50 days for condition score gain before June 10, one month before many herds calve in early July. Pasture cover needs to build in this period as well. Are you on track to meet BCS and pasture cover targets in this timeframe?

# Milking once a day

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