Determination of suitable timing, frequency and sample size of body condition scoring for herd management in Holstein herds

Abstract. In this study, 11 526 body condition scores obtained from 1 033 lactations of 696 Holstein cows raised in 17 dairy herds enrolled in Izmir Holstein Breeders Association were used. Several scoring schedules according to days in milk (DIM) such as weekly, bi-weekly, 3- weekly, 4-weekly, 6-weekly, 8-weekly and 12-weekly were compared. As a results of this study, it was advised more frequent scoring (weekly) in the first 4-weeks and less frequent scoring (8-weekly) in the mid and the late parts of lactation. Since scoring each cow, especially in large dairies, is time consuming and high labour cost process, a group of cows reflecting group performance can be scored. For example, in the 4-weekly scheme, percentages of cows needed for each DIM group were 5 % of the number of cows available for the first 305 days of lactations. Number of cows to be scored is high at the beginning of lactation and this number decreased towards end of lactation.