Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXII, Issue 1
Written by Alina Elena CUVLIUC, Gheorghe Emil MĂRGINEAN, Stelian ACATINCĂI, Dana Cătălina POPA, Livia VIDU
Body Condition Score (B.C.S.) is a good indicator for estimating the reserves, especially of energy, that the dairy cows have to support milk production. In general, the values that this indicator can take vary between 1 and 5 with the evolution of lactation over time, but also from one cow to another. Good dairy cows have difficulties maintaining B.C.S. at an optimal level, especially during the first and second lactation period, since the ingestion capacity of nutrients they have is exceeded by the body's need for milk production. For this reason, the negative energy balance is installed. In order to cope with this period, animals dispose their body fat, thus setting up the negative energy balance, a phenomenon that significantly affects certain zootechnical efficiency parameters such as productive longevity, lactation duration, calving interval, etc. Nutritionists can mitigate this impact by optimizing ratios also taking into consideration this parameter. The present paper aims to determine the correlation between the rank and age of lactation with the value of B.C.S.
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