University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Relationships among international body condition scoring systems

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-16, 18:20 authored by Roche, JR, Dillon, PG, Stockdale, CR, Baumgard, LH, VanBaale, MJ
Scoring body condition and assessing changes in the body condition of dairy cattle have become strategic tools in both farm management and research. Consequently, body condition score (BCS) is being researched extensively throughout the world. However, international sharing, comparing, and use of data generated are limited because different BCS systems exist. In the United States and Ireland a 5-point BCS system is used for dairy cows, whereas Australia and New Zealand use 8- and 10-point scales, respectively. The New Zealand 10-point scale was compared with the scoring systems in the United States, Ireland, and Australia by trained assessors. Cows were assessed visually in the United States and Australia, and in Ireland, cows were assessed by palpating key areas of the cow's body (n = 154, 110, and 120, respectively). Data were analyzed by regression. Significant positive linear relationships were found between the New Zealand 10-point scale and the other scoring systems: US 5-point scale, r 2 = 0.54; Irish 5-point scale, r2 = 0.72; and Australian 8-point scale, r2 = 0.61. Those relationships must be interpreted cautiously because respective BCS within a given country were by just one experienced evaluator in each country in comparison to a separate evaluator scoring all cows in all counties using the New Zealand 10-point scale. Also, few very thin or very fat cows limit evaluation across extremes of BCS. However, differences between systems were not accurately predicted by simple mathematical calculations. The relationship may be closer for New Zealand and Ireland (r2 = 0.72) because both of those scoring systems include palpation of individual body parts, whereas visual evaluation is done in Australia and the United States. The current study is the first to examine relationships among differing BCS systems. These results may be useful for comparing/extrapolating research findings from different countries.

History

Publication title

Journal of Dairy Science

Volume

87

Issue

9

Pagination

3076-3079

ISSN

0022-0302

Department/School

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA)

Publisher

American Dairy Science Association

Place of publication

United States

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Dairy cattle

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC