Automated Body Condition Scoring
alternative practice names:
Automated Body Condition Scoring; Body Condition Score Cameras
An accurate body condition score (BCS) supports precise feed planning and helps ensure that dairy cows maintain optimal body fat reserves. By accurately assessing BCS, farmers can tailor feeding strategies to promote healthy body fat reserves, thereby enhancing milk production, reproductive efficiency, and cow longevity.
The use of an automated BCS system improves accuracy by eliminating the subjectivity and potential errors associated with manual evaluations. Cameras can be strategically placed on a dairy to monitor every cow every day, and the image's specific characteristics can be analyzed using artificial intelligence to determine the cow's BCS. Computer algorithms have proven to be more consistent at determining dairy cow BCS than human observers.
Coupling this consistency with daily observations provides a large amount of data with some promising utility for production management. A few systems like this are on the market, and more are under development. They typically involve one or several cameras placed over a milking return alley or similar location on the dairy where electronic cow identification and single-file procession can occur. The camera images are analyzed by a computer system, and outputs such as daily BCS, averages by group, or changes over time can be reported to the user.
The management implications of this information are an emerging area of research, but the identification of sub-populations with differing risks for disease or fertility outcomes could prove valuable, along with more rapid and definitive trends in group-level BCS metabolic changes over time following a diet change, for example.
When used, in what regions in the U.S. is the practice found:
Northwest, West, Upper Midwest, Southwest, Northeast, Southeast
FARM SIZE
When used, typically found on farms of the following sizes:
Over 500 cows

Practice Benefits
Improved labor efficiency: Automated BCS data could improve labor efficiency by allowing herd managers to gather and analyze this useful data in seconds. However, most operations are either not conducting regular BCS evaluations or are doing it in small fractions of their herd; therefore, substantial labor would not necessarily be displaced by the system. Still, opportunities may exist to increase profitability over time if appropriate actions are taken using automated BCS data.
Improved accuracy: Accurate BCS scoring is often a subjective measure requiring three observers. The automated BCS system may improve the accuracy and precision of BCS scoring.
Herd management optimization: Speculatively, lower BCS fresh and peak lactation cows could be grouped and fed differently to increase production, maintain/build BCS, and improve fertility. Likewise, various populations of high BCS cows may be identified for different or earlier reproductive interventions, mating choices, or grouping and feeding strategies. If these actions manage to increase production, increase fertility, or improve feed efficiency, then improved profitability would follow.

Implementation Insights
Site-specific or Farm-specific requirements

Operation layout: This technology will integrate better into management systems where all adult cows process through a single location on the dairy, such as herds milked in parlors. However, the potential exists for other systems as well; for example, identical cameras could be mounted over each box in a robot barn, and the images analyzed by a single central server.
Required Capital Expenditures (CapEx)

Technology upgrades: Capital expenditures include a specialized camera, electronic identification equipment, and computer system.
Required Operational Expenditures (OpEx)

Software subscription: Some of these systems will be subscription-based, charging an ongoing fee for access to data analytics and tech support.
Implementation Considerations

Technology integration: The value of automated BCS systems may be enhanced when coupled with other objective cow measures such as locomotion, body weight measurements, and milk evaluations (i.e., non-esterified fatty acids [NEFA], beta-hydroxybutyrate [BHB], and milk fatty acid profiles).
Precision: Accurate body condition scoring supports precise feed planning and helps ensure that dairy cows maintain optimal body fat reserves. This not only supports milk production, reproductive efficiency, and cow longevity but also serves as a critical indicator of feeding effectiveness on the farm. Body condition scoring must be conducted with precision at key stages in the lactation cycle to maximize its utility. By accurately assessing BCS, farmers can tailor feeding strategies to promote healthy body fat reserves, thereby enhancing overall cow health. Moreover, this approach can lead to more efficient use of feed resources, potentially lowering feed costs by adjusting the diet of overweight cows. The use of a BCS camera further improves accuracy by eliminating the subjectivity and potential errors associated with manual evaluations.
Financial Considerations and Revenue Streams
There are no federal cost-share programs or conservation funding for this practice.
Additional Resources

Environmental Impacts
MAY REDUCE FARM GREENHOUSE GAS FOOTPRINT
There is currently little to no scientific research evaluating the practice's impact on a farm's environmental footprint. Accurate body measurements can inform various management decisions. If these management decisions lead to increased production efficiency, they may reduce the farm's environmental footprint by reducing methane emissions, improving water and feed use efficiency, and boosting milk production efficiency.
REFerences

Alignment with FARM Program
FARM Animal Care (AC) V5 Alignment
The FARM Animal Care program requires that 99% or more of pre-weaned calves, heifers, and lactating cows (over two days old) maintain a body condition score of 2 or greater, according to the FARM Body Condition Scorecard. Additionally, all age groups of animals must have access to adequate feed to support their maintenance, health, and growth.
Contents
We're always eager to update the website with the latest research, implementation insights, financial case studies, and emerging practices. Use the link above to share your insights.
We're always eager to update the website with the latest research, implementation insights, financial case studies, and emerging practices. Use the link above to share your insights.
An accurate body condition score (BCS) supports precise feed planning and helps ensure that dairy cows maintain optimal body fat reserves. By accurately assessing BCS, farmers can tailor feeding strategies to promote healthy body fat reserves, thereby enhancing milk production, reproductive efficiency, and cow longevity.
The use of an automated BCS system improves accuracy by eliminating the subjectivity and potential errors associated with manual evaluations. Cameras can be strategically placed on a dairy to monitor every cow every day, and the image's specific characteristics can be analyzed using artificial intelligence to determine the cow's BCS. Computer algorithms have proven to be more consistent at determining dairy cow BCS than human observers.
Coupling this consistency with daily observations provides a large amount of data with some promising utility for production management. A few systems like this are on the market, and more are under development. They typically involve one or several cameras placed over a milking return alley or similar location on the dairy where electronic cow identification and single-file procession can occur. The camera images are analyzed by a computer system, and outputs such as daily BCS, averages by group, or changes over time can be reported to the user.
The management implications of this information are an emerging area of research, but the identification of sub-populations with differing risks for disease or fertility outcomes could prove valuable, along with more rapid and definitive trends in group-level BCS metabolic changes over time following a diet change, for example.
Practices and technologies
Automated Body Condition Scoring
alternative practice name:
Automated Body Condition Scoring; Body Condition Score Cameras