A BCS for All Seasons
Use body condition to guide feed needs for the cow herd.
February 24, 2025
by Lauren Brinegar
There are many variables when we think about feeding cows. What does feed cost? What kind of feed is available? What do the cows look like? What are the delivery methods I need for the feed? How much time in the day do I have to feed my cattle?
No matter the challenge of the day, the conversation typically winds down to two things: available forages and finances.
Feeding cattle isn’t a short sprint or race; it’s a marathon that takes time and resources. Furthermore, what we feed affects females at calving and pushes them into breeding season — whether they are in the right condition or not.
Defining the target
“Preparing cows for calving and breeding comes down to meeting the requirements that the cow needs,” says Randie Culbertson, assistant professor and cow-calf extension specialist at Iowa State University. “To do that, we need to spend some time looking at your cows to get a body condition score (BCS).”
The American Angus Association provides a guide to scoring cow BCS at https://bit.ly/423emX5. (See below for picture and table.)
In the Midwest, the target BCS is 5.5 (on a 9-point scale) when the female enters calving season. If you have space, Culbertson recommends separating cows with scores of 4 or lower and feeding them separately to bring them back up in condition.
If cows have a BCS of 5 or higher, they are going to be in pretty good shape going into calving season, and that’s where you want to maintain it.
Reaching the target
So what does a cow need in order to maintain that BCS, and what are the feed resources that get us there? This depends on your location and available feed resources.
Oklahoma State University provides a handy fact sheet detailing the nutrient requirements of different classes of cattle at different stages of life at https://bit.ly/3DK8VCe.
“We’re a product of where we live, [so in the Midwest] the most effective cow rations I see for spring-calving cows [are] a combination of ground cornstalks, rye silage and corn silage,” says Jeff Pastoor, beef technical consultant for Quality Liquid Feeds. “We are going to vary those ratios of feed on whether we need to gain or maintain body condition.”
While feeding high-quality forages, mineral considerations need to be made. According to Pastoor, the proper daily intake rate of a quality mineral is between 3 ounces (oz.) and 4 oz.
Meeting calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) levels is easy, he says. We can do that without feeding minerals.
“The main reason we’re going to feed 3 to 4 ounces of a good commercial mineral every day is because we are trying to get trace minerals and vitamins into that animal,” Pastoor says. “It’s the trace minerals and vitamins that drive the reproduction system and that drive some of the rumen function, as well as some of the immune system.”
Eating for two
If we take this conversation one step further and think about the calf, it adds a whole new level of elements to the picture.
“If you are maintaining a 5 or 6 BCS on your cow herd, you’re doing fine,” Culbertson says. “When they start to slip down and have to start partitioning all those nutrients to her own survival and the survival of the fetus, that’s where we start seeing the fetal problems.”
Research has shown when you follow those calves that come from lower BCS cows, those calves underperform compared to the calves that would have had mothers who stayed at a BCS 5 or 6 the whole winter, Culbertson explains. Decreased weaning weights, diminished feedlot performance, and lower average daily gains are all part of the consequences of challenged fetal development.
Can you go too far?
The question that needs to be raised next is, how fat is too fat? Danny Beckman, a cow-calf producer from Danville, Iowa, has moved his cows into a fall calving window. While the feeding windows, weather and environment look a little different than for a spring-calving herd, the concern of bringing home cows prior to calving season too fat remains.
“The cows come off grass before calving season in August,” Beckman says. “It’s almost always a concern that the cows are in too high of a body condition score.”
If we think about this from a dollars and cents standpoint, no matter what time of year your calving season happens, this is a concern.
“Feeding cows isn’t just an economic cost, it’s a long-term economic cost,” says Pastoor. “It’s not that I just overfed them this fall, the cost resides in that I’ve made them bigger for the rest of their life, and I’m going to pay for that maintenance requirement.”
According to Pastoor, controlling how much we feed cows can have a big effect on your bottom line long term, not just short term.
As we think about moving past parturition, it’s important to keep in mind that the cow has entered the highest point of lactation and nutrition requirement. She requires high-quality forages and has a higher protein requirement.
“Early-lactation protein is key,” Pastoor says. “Even going from late gestation to early lactation, her protein requirement on a percentage basis is moving from a ration with 8%-9% protein to a ration of 10%-11% protein. We’re increasing by about 20%.”
From Pastoor’s perspective, it’s not challenging to get that into the female. It can be through high-quality hay or a byproduct of some sort, even a commercial product. From a pounds (lb.) basis, it will be approximately 3-3¼ lb. of pure protein.
While some of this can depend on genetics, the majority of it depends on where you’re at within the calendar year.
“Match your production calendar to your environment,” Culbertson says. “Pay attention to when you’re going to have grass coming in so when you turn cows out, you’re meeting their requirements and there’s enough groceries to feed the cows during peak lactation.”
Feeding cows, maintaining a healthy calf, and preparing for the next breeding season is a fine balance. The common theme? Keep an eye on the cow, and know what you’re feeding.
Editor’s note: Lauren Brinegar is a freelance writer and cattlewoman from Liscomb, Iowa.
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