Associations of Automatically Recorded Body Condition Scores with Measures of Production, Health, and Reproduction

Abstract

In the present study, we hypothesize that an automated body condition scoring system could be an indicator of health and pregnancy success in cows. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the relationship of the automated registered body condition score (BCS) with pregnancy and inline biomarkers such as milk beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), milk lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), milk progesterone (mP4), and milk yield (MY) in dairy cows. Indicators from Herd NavigatorTM were grouped into classes based on their arithmetic means. Values were divided into various classes: MY: ≤31 kg/day (first class—67.3% of cows) and >31 kg/day (second class—32.7%); BHB in milk: ≤0.06 mmol/L (first class—80.7% of cows) and >0.06 mmol/L (second class—16.9%); milk LDH activity: ≤27 µmol/min (first class—69.5% of cows) and >27 µmol/min (second class—30.5%); milk progesterone value: ≤15.5 ng/mL (first class—28.8% of cows) and >15.5 ng/mL (second class—71.2%); and BCS: 2.5–3.0 (first class—21.4% of cows), >3.0–3.5 (second class—50.8%), and >3.5–4.0 (third class—27.8%). According to parity, the cows were divided into two groups: 1 lactation (first group—38.9%) and ≥2 lactations (second group—61.1%). Based on our investigated parameters, BCS is associated with pregnancy success because the BCS (+0.29 score) and mP4 (10.93 ng/mL) of the pregnant cows were higher compared to the group of non-pregnant cows. The MY (−5.26 kg, p p 3.5–4.0 was 42.41% higher than that among cows with the lowest BCS of 2.5–3.0 (p 3.5–4.0; this value was 6.48% higher than that in cows with a BCS of >3.0–3.5 (p 3.5–4.0 (p p < 0.001).

Keywords

• precision dairy farming
• sensors technology
• dairy cows