Talking Dairy

Improve next season’s production with these smart autumn moves | Ep. 120

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Autumn gives you a short but valuable window to set your herd up well. 

In this Talking Dairy episode, DairyNZ scientist, Dr Susanne Meier, explains why hitting BCS targets before calving has such a big flow on effect—supporting recovery after calving, earlier cycling, stronger reproductive performance, and more milk in the vat next season. And DairyNZ farm systems specialist, Mark Williams, brings the farm system view: how to condition‑score your herd accurately, plan dry‑off dates with confidence, and choose feeding and drafting strategies that move the cows who need it most.

You’ll also learn about practical tools that make these decisions easier, including the dry off calculator, feed budgeting tool, and the BCS app many farmers now rely on to track progress through autumn.

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Have feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at talkingdairy@dairynz.co.nz

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Introduction

SPEAKER_02

Today, we're talking about the smartest autumn moves farmers are using to lock in cow condition early and protect next season's performance. And the good news is they're simpler than you think. Kiora and welcome to Talking Dairy. I'm Jack McGowan from DairyNZ. It's great to have you with us. Autumn is the setup season. It's a short runway we've got where good choices echo right through carving, mating, and milk in the VAT next season. The research is clear, hitting body condition score or BCS targets before carving supports cow health, reproduction and production, your bottom line, and your farm's resilience for the year ahead. In this episode, we'll unpack what you can do right now, and we'll share a simple digital tool many farmers are using to track progress. Joining us are Dr. Suzanne Meyer, here to break down the importance of body condition and transition success, and Mark Williams, one of our farm systems specialists, turning that science into an actionable autumn plan. Let's get into it. Kyra Kurua, welcome to the podcast. Let's kick things off with some introductions. Suzanne and Mark, but we'll start with Suzanne. Can you tell our listeners a bit about your role and what you spend your time working on?

SPEAKER_01

I'm a scientist at DairyNZ and I research the challenges that farmers have and look for solutions. I really enjoy listening to farmers, understanding those challenges, sharing our research with them, and working through opportunities to improve farm outcomes through herd and animal performance. Thanks, Suzanne.

SPEAKER_02

And how about you, Mark?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm a farm system specialist, which is a varied job. I'm involved actively in projects within DNZ, most notably the Resilient Pastures Project. Also get time out in the field presenting on different topics and most of the time behind the scenes working on content for different events and social media. What's content? The things that turn up in front of people in a usable way.

The Science Behind Repro Drivers

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Mark. All right, Suzanne, let's start with the why. From a science point of view, what are some of the most important drivers of reproductive performance? And where does body condition score fit into this picture?

SPEAKER_01

That's a great question. There are actually eight pieces of what we call then calf cake. I've termed them future-proving. So they include genetics and heifer management, growing your heifers. It focuses the next level on impact, season to season. That's where body condition score comes in, carving pattern, cow health. And then those pieces of the cake that are close to mating, heat detection, A B, and bull management. So we're at the time of year where body condition really sets you up for next season's reproductive performance.

SPEAKER_02

And so building on that, why are those body condition score targets before carving so crucial?

SPEAKER_01

Because it sets the cow up to be in a state after carving that means she can recover from that stress of carving. We actually have three targets that link in. One is that target body condition score at carving, which you think about now. Then the next target is the cow's not being at four body condition score at mating, and the cow's not losing more than one body condition score through early lactation. And we find that the research tells us that the first target helps you achieve those subsequent targets.

SPEAKER_02

So you're saying that body condition score at carving almost determines what happens after carving and mating?

BCS Targets By Age Group

SPEAKER_01

Yes, it supports what happens after carving and at mating. It's not the only determinant factor, but it's something that you can focus on now. There are other factors, but that is a key one.

SPEAKER_02

Is the target at carving the same for every cow?

Measure BCS And Set Baselines

SPEAKER_01

No, it's not. We have two targets. One is for your young cows, those in lactation one and two, they have a body condition score target of 5.5. That's really important because they're still growing. They need that extra fat and that extra padding to get through carving and be robust through early lactation. The mature cows, we say a body condition score of five is sufficient. And it's not just a herd average. We're trying to get farmers to think about every cow being as close to those targets, whether they're lactation one and two at 5.5, or mature cows at five, that the majority of the animals are at that target. It's not just a herd average.

SPEAKER_02

Now, Mark, when you think about autumn planning with body condition score in mind, what's the first thing you encourage farmers to focus on?

SPEAKER_00

Knowing where they are now. And that's knowing to Suzanne's point, every individual cow, because going out and doing a representative group gives you part of the picture and it'll give you a range within a herd and it'll give you an average. What you're actually after at this time of the year, post-pregnancy testing, so you know who's going to be in the herd next year, is what is the body condition store currently of those cows that are going to be carving for you next spring. So either doing it yourself if you're confident, and we've got a great app that can help you with that, and there's some great resources to sort of refresh you, or using an accredited rural professional vet that's been through the training. That gives you the baseline where my cows are, which sets up the next step in the process, which is what's the dry-off date for all of those cows. And we've got another great tool that you can put the information into, and it'll tell you, based on their carving date, where they are now, how much longer you can milk those individual cows. And so you can set up drying off groups to reach those targets, and you can set when that target is. If she carves suboptimally at four and a half, she's probably a lighter cow now, by balance of probability. So you're just trying to break that cycle and giving her an extra holiday to put that weight back on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I remember in our first season, sheer milking, we'd taken on a herd that was, you know, quite low condition, and our vet made it really clear to us that we needed to make a capital investment, he called it, in the body condition score of the herd, which meant quite a change for that farm going to individual dry-off and actually not trying to milk them all right through to the end of the season.

SPEAKER_00

When you look at individual herds, you quite often see cows at the lower body condition score range have done a lot of milk solids to date. So don't think I'm giving a cow an extra holiday because she's probably done her work to date. She's earned the extra break. She's put a lot of effort and energy into production. And some of those cows individually, genetically, just require an extra two-week holiday to put the weight back on.

Feed Plans To Lift Light Cows

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so let's talk about the cows that are tracking a little lighter, probably because they carved lighter last carving, so lighter than farmers would like. What can farmers start doing now to lift the condition of those individual animals?

SPEAKER_00

So I always start with the end in mind. To Suzanne's point, making sure that you've isolated who are my second carvers, so they're in their first lactation, and going, okay, what is the target I need for those? That's five and a half. And you've got your heifers coming home, and they generally come home onto platforms about the first of May. So making sure that in your feed budgeting situation, they are still going to maintain or add condition, but they're still growing as well. So making sure you've got enough feed on hand for the young stock coming home, and also enough feed on hand to put on condition on the cows that you've got, and setting those targets of either five or five and a half, and going how many in each group, and then how much feed do I require for each group, and the different types of feed I have available put on weight better than others. There's a really good tool, which I'll talk a little bit about later. It's called the feed budget, milk on, milk off sort of tool, and it's like a basic feed budget, and at the bottom it has a nice little table that states the different efficiencies of different supplementary feeds and pasture. So it tells you how much to allocate to put on a body condition score, and it's a really good way of in one page showing you what's the size of the prize or the deficit that you might be facing and what's the best way to tackle it.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so you've told us what it's called. Just in case people stop listening at this point, where can they find it?

SPEAKER_00

They can find it on our website. It's the feed budget milk on dry off tool.

The Payoff And The Risks

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Mark. All right, Suzanne. What does the research tell us about the benefits of hitting those body condition score targets, or perhaps the implications of not hitting them?

SPEAKER_01

It's clear that the implications of cows carving on target body condition score, whether they're at 5.5 for the young animals, lactation one and two or five, is that they will produce more. How much more? Instead of carving at four and they carve at five on target, you're looking at about 12 kilograms of milk solo. So rounded up, I'm easy numbers are$120 per animal in milk. That's just one factor. The other thing that's really clear is that cows that are at that target. So by hitting those targets, not only do they cycle earlier, and we estimate that's about 7% more cycled by the plant start of mating, that flows on to six-week in calf rate, which means around 2 to 4% greater six-week in-carf rate for those animals that reach their target. And that then transfers further down the line to a 1 to 2% lower not in calf rate for animals hitting their target life weights. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And what about the other end of the spectrum? What are the risks when cows carve overconditioned?

SPEAKER_01

They tend to have greater metabolic disease through that transition period. Can you explain why that's happening? Because those overconditioned animals are metabolizing and using up more of those fat reserves when the body uses that and it goes through to produce energy, to produce milk, it actually causes biochemical changes, which lead to factors in the blood that cause metabolic disease. And those are not good things. The cow doesn't want to undertake calving, stress, and then have metabolic disease and not good for her. The other thing is depending on how much feeding she got, she may have a bigger calf, she may have uterine health issues. Again, that then impacts reproductive performance down the line. So those are the things that you're looking at. The key message really is it's not just calving body condition score, but then there's other targets of being above four body condition score at mating and not losing more than one body condition score, those fat cows will most likely lose more than one, and they're at 1.5 loss of body condition score, and that causes that metabolic upset.

SPEAKER_02

What about underconditioned cows? What can they end up costing a farmer next season?

SPEAKER_01

That kind of underconditioned animal tends to flow on to the next season. So they do produce less, and we can quantify that. It's around that$120 as current payout, if they're at four instead of five. They will also more likely not get pregnant. So you suddenly have a lot of these skinny cows potentially leaving your herd too early. So their longevity reduces. So those are the long-term impacts of being skinny. If they get too skinny, you then go into the welfare kind of area of concerns. And we don't want any farmers to be sitting in that category.

SPEAKER_02

You talked about the effect of overcondition or high loss of body condition score on metabolic health. Are there any health impacts for calving at a you know four and a half, four?

SPEAKER_01

They're a little bit like a seesaw, so and different health impacts. So the really fat cows, they have those metabolic, high risk of those metabolic diseases. And because they have a bigger calf uterine disease, the very skinny cows, they have a challenge with their immune function. So they're more challenged if a disease comes along and tackles them because their immune function declines. So we see that in uh when they are around three and a half compared to a four and a half carving, that's really where their challenges are.

SPEAKER_02

If a farm doesn't have enough feed on hand to achieve their targets, which animals would you prioritize?

SPEAKER_01

Or is that impossible? It's not impossible, but it's a balancing act. I say that because in one part of my work, I think about genetic gain and the young animals being the future of your herd. That's quite important. But at the other hand, if I think about the farmer, those adult animals are already paying their way and continue to pay their way. So it's a really hard question, depending on probably the business challenges or opportunities for every farm business and every farmer. I think you should try and feed as much as you can and push it, but be aware that if there is a group that you've dedicated less feed to and they calve skinny and skinnier than you want, you may probably find they will be leaving your herd more quickly.

Tools That Make Decisions Easier

SPEAKER_02

All right. So, Mark, what are the trade-offs between milking on versus drying off? And what are the whole system factors? Suzanne talked about them a little bit that farmers should be thinking about.

SPEAKER_00

And she did a good job.

SPEAKER_02

She did. I was looking for who do we sacrifice? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Every year.

SPEAKER_02

Every year, okay.

Key Takeaways

SPEAKER_00

When you're a farmer, when there's a good payout year, you're like, every milk solid is worth a lot of money to me. So, like milking as long as possible as many cows is money going into your cash flow. Vice versa, if payouts down, you're saying every dollar is really important to me, and I'm going to milk as many cows as long as possible because those dollars are even more important to me. So, what we try to get through to farmers is you have to have the same decision rules each year. And that is firstly going, okay, where are we now? Which we talked about before. What is the dry-off date for those cows to reach their target? And then going, okay, what's my feed budget situation looking like? What are the key targets I need to hit pasture cover-wise on the 1st of June at carving? Am I on track to do those? And then tie that in with if I've got a deficit, what is the cheapest way to fill the deficit? And is that the best feed for cow condition or milk production? Because quite often the two aren't exactly the same. Like higher energy feeds generally put on cow condition, but it mightn't be what you have the infrastructure to feed, and it mightn't be what's available to you. So again, tying that all together with your cash flow budget and saying, is this economically going to improve my situation as well as the situation for my cow and my overall farm feed situation when I go into next season? Because you never know is next season going to be a better payout, a lower payout. So you're trying to set yourself up in the best possible position the start of each season, because you don't want to negatively impact six week in calf rates or not in calf rates, because then you're punishing yourself for two years. Having been in that situation multiple times myself, just trying to stick to the same decision rules each year and trying to achieve the same results, given the variation that Mother Nature's going to throw at you. And sometimes it's prioritizing if I still have cows that are empty milking, because it's been a really good summer in a lot of areas, making sure that they go as soon as I start feeding extra supplements out, or I'm worried about cow condition. And then looking at my young animals have to be my first to dry off because I've got a higher target and they generally have more weight to put on to get to those body condition score targets. So just making sure I've set that aside and then going, have I looked at what is the best option for those individual cows? Is it once a day as a different mob? But if I'm a small herd, having multiple mobs sometimes doesn't work. And then some cow sheds have technology where they can individually feed cows different diets in the shed. So you can target lower body condition score animals. So it depends on the farm, is it's the easy question. Yeah. But just being really clear in your own outcomes you're after and your own plan, and working with the rural professionals or other farmers to just make sure that your plan makes sense year after year.

SPEAKER_02

What I'm hearing is, you know, now is the time to make those decisions and not end up with a feed deficit, which I was challenging Suzanne with.

SPEAKER_00

And Suzanne clearly said, you know, there's eight pieces of a reproduction pie. Reproduction performance is a year-round thing. That's why farming's such a challenge. Harder than golf, I'd say.

SPEAKER_02

I wouldn't know about golf. Now, Mark, you mentioned empty cows and sending them off. I wondered if you wanted to take a moment to comment on the importance of getting them off and the consequences of keeping them on.

SPEAKER_00

Removing culs is always a discussion at any farmer event at this time of year. A lot of farmers will say those cows produce better. Now, there's a bit of science done which showed that the effect of pregnancy kicks in a lot later than most farmers think, but it does kick in uh during March and April. So, yes, those cows can produce better, but also the longer you hold on to them, especially in very congested dairy areas, the more problems you could run into trying to remove them in a hurry if things change. It goes cold, growth rates drop, or it you have a late dry. You don't want to be caught with extra mouths to feed. So always pre-thinking what your plan is each year. So I always used to have a set rule of X number of my empties went within days of pregnancy testing because I would naturally be able to find very low-producing cows that weren't going to be there next year, and they could just go straight away. And then it opened up a suite of options for what I did with the rest of them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so you're prioritizing the feed budget and the needs of the cows you're attaining, but you're also avoiding a situation where your cows, empty cows, need to be transported very long distances.

SPEAKER_00

Generally, rule of thumb, the lower the input the system, you should be removing your empty cold cows before you start feeding out in in autumn or in late summer. Because, you know what I mean, you're looking after next year.

SPEAKER_02

Mark, finally, how can farmers recover cow condition without blowing the feed budget?

SPEAKER_00

It's about early identification. So that's why I was asking farmers to individually condition school your cows. Then you know, is it a big issue within my herd that I need to address? And drafting those cows out, making sure there's nothing else going on with that proportion of your herd, either being able to preferentially feed or say, I'm going to milk them to this date based on their average condition score and calving dates, and dry them off early and feed them to get to condition score as a dry cow, or I've got some options to once a day them for a longer period. And cows are more efficient at putting on weight while lactating, but there's a very small amount of extra feed that's allocated to body condition score versus drying them off, and they have nothing else to worry about apart from pressure. Pregnancy themselves and putting on body condition score. So I've calculated the difference between the two. It always worked out better to dry them off and feed them that way. At risk cows, when you do your scanning, any cows with twins, any cows that have had any other health issues during the year, a couple of cases of mastitis, she's been lame, just make sure those are sorted because those are going to impact on her ability to put on weight. And just what feed you have available and how you allocate that. So setting up a almost too high a body condition score group and saying, I'm going to set this feed aside as maintenance feed for those once they dry off to keep them where they are, or even maybe if they were over five and a half and they need to be at five, how do I not go higher than that or even maintain a slightly lower average? So thinking about what feed you've got and where's the best place to put it economically. Because you're after as many cows milking for as long as possible. So the higher body condition score they are now means that you can milk them on longer. And that's the mindset you need to think going into next season. The better I set them up, the longer they'll milk next season. Because on the law of averages, I'll have a higher body condition score at the same time if I set them up well now.

SPEAKER_02

Now, Suzanne, Mark mentioned that cows put on body condition score more efficiently when they're lactating. That's a bit confusing to me.

SPEAKER_01

Can you tease that out? That kind of concept is because the cows are just getting more feed. So some of the extra feed is going into body condition score because they're kind of already on the decline in their peak of production and they're not suddenly going to produce more. That's just more days in milk. The key really here is that you don't underestimate how much extra feed they need. And suddenly you are needing to dry off, and they're only at 4.5, and they still only have shorter than required period to gain any additional condition. There is a kind of a pause period. So once they dry off, they take about a week or two to start building body condition score. It doesn't automatically happen on the day of dry-off because they've got to recover from that drying off process. The butter needs to recover and so on. So there's a lot happening in those initial weeks of dry-off. So you can't expect suddenly a lot of movement in body condition score there. So you've got to take that into account. But also at the other end, at around the last four weeks before carving, the cows are also going to slow down no matter how much feed you put in front of them and gaining body condition score. So even though we think we've got a long window, and farmers may think after drying off, it's a long window, but there's these kind of periods where things stall a little bit. And we've got to consider that.

SPEAKER_02

That does sound quite a lot to think about. So, Mark, before we wrap up, can you talk to us about the tools and resources? You've mentioned them, but talk us through them. What have we got available that can help guide these decisions?

SPEAKER_00

We've got a good tool, which is the dry-off date to reach body condition score target, basically a downloadable spreadsheet. Really good just to put your carving dates and body conditions into it and set your dry-off groups with your vet. And it's just a good where am I at? And then you can monitor how each of those mobs go on your body condition score app and just do a representative sample and go, are they as a group moving the way they should? And you can do that without the vet and just a bit of training. The other one I talked about was the feed budgeting milk on dry-off tool. It's got a bit of an economic analysis on page two for if you have a deficit and you're looking at keeping on milking, how much that's going to cost your system in the way of extra costs. There's also if you change by cutting some costs out, what's the positive impact of those? It's a good balancing tool of what's my feed situation, have I got a surplus or a deficit to achieve what I want to do? How many body condition scores do I need to put on? What's the best type of feed I've got available to do that? And then what's the economic sort of one-page analysis of that? But another one I was just thinking as we were talking was the size of the prize you're after is a repro one. So putting your last year's numbers into the in-calf gap calculator, I've never done one where it doesn't show quite a good lift in economic performance from body condition score. And you can put in what your own goals are around six-week in-calf rate. So, you know, if I'm currently sitting in low 70s and I'm going, I just want to get to 74 or 75, what's the gain there? Or if I'm lower than that and I want to get to 70, what's the gain from that? And it just hones you in on where's the best place to focus. I reiterate I haven't seen many that don't say body condition score is a good focus. And then if you want to look at more technical data, there's a whole lot of feed write tech notes around reproductive performance. And number 27, I highlighted.

SPEAKER_02

And you mentioned an app.

SPEAKER_00

The body condition school app.

SPEAKER_02

What does that do?

SPEAKER_00

Good at monitoring different herds. So you can actually split out individual mobs, and each time you record the number of cows in it, and you can go and record the cow numbers individually if you would like to, or just do as a representative 50, 70 cows, and it'll graph out what's the range of cows you've looked at and what's the average. So you can monitor each period. Is my range getting smaller? As I want it to, and as my average increasing. So very good at picking up within mobs if I've got some tail end cows that need to be pulled up. And you can actually put a little tag note. I need to do something with that.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Well, that's about all we have time for today. The big message today is simple. Autumn is still a window where smart decisions really pay off. So score your herd individually, tighten up that spread, act early on the light cows, and get your springers set up with the right feeding plan. And you'll feel the benefits right through carving, mating, and next season's milk in the vat. A huge thank you to Suzanne and Mark for sharing their insights and thanks to you for listening. We'll link to the Autumn Smarts resources and the BCS app in the show notes so you can dive deeper and put some of these ideas into action straight away. Thanks for joining us and we'll catch you next time. Matiwa. If you'd like to get connected with DariNZ's latest advice, research, tools, and resources, whether it's reading, scrolling, listening, or in person, you can visit dairynz.co.nz forward slash get connected, and don't forget to hit follow to keep up to date with our latest episodes. As always, if you have any feedback on this podcast or have some ideas for future topics or guests, please email us at talkingdairy at dairynz.co.nz. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time on Talking Dairy.