Why Body Condition Scoring Could Be The ‘Golden Ticket’ for Dairy Farms

By Nial O’Boyle

If you’ve ever watched or read Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you’ll remember Violet Beauregarde; the world-champion gum-chewer who ignored Willy Wonka’s warnings and chewed the forbidden three-course-dinner gum. 

All seemed fine until dessert hit: blueberry pie. Seconds later, she inflated into a giant blueberry and had to be rolled away by the Oompa Loompas for emergency “juicing.”

Cows have varying appetites and varying degrees of milk production. Some cows don’t know when to stop eating, and like Violet can roll right into trouble. Just like Violet, there are emergency “juicing” treatments for cows but these must be administered. 

Metabolic diseases like ketosis, displaced abomasum, and milk fever aren’t fiction and are far more costly. Around 1-in–2 cows experiences a metabolic disorder after calving, and managing the mobilisation of body reserves is a key factor in this sobering statistic. 

Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is one of the best indicators we have to catch metabolic risk before it spirals. Yet it’s very hard to measure consistently, objectively, and as herds have grown, so too has this challenge. 

Our technology provides autonomous daily BCS monitoring via machine vision and an ordinary security camera. Like the Everlasting Gobstopper of BCS scoring, the CattleEye system never diminishes or loses its effectiveness. It’s always on, never distracted and absolutely provides objective, consistent and continuous scoring. 

Moreover, validation from the University of Liverpool has demonstrated that the CattleEye BCS system is as accurate as a trained veterinarian. 

While cows will not change their body condition as quickly as Violet, the CattleEye app allows farmers to detect subtle changes more readily. Alerts can appear if a cow is gaining or losing condition too quickly, or out of range for her stage of lactation. Cohorts can be measured too, giving farmers the ability to adjust diets, and enable the optimum BCS for health and profit. 

It’ i’s not a Golden Ticket, but it does offer a golden opportunity to improve dairy management. 

To find out more about CattleEye’s Body Condition Scoring and discuss how we can improve animal welfare on your farm, please email us at contact@cattleeye.com