The Jack Green Churchill Fellowship to determine effective nutritional management strategies for BCS in intensively housed dairy farms

Body Condition Score (BCS) has large effects on the production, reproduction and health of dairy cows, feeding into the financial productivity of dairy businesses. Intensively housing dairy cows fed total mixed rations with minimal exercise and optimal animal comfort creates difficulties in managing BCS. These cows gain weight easily and create issues in the above mentioned areas of these dairy businesses. I want to investigate nutritional management strategies for controlling BCS on farms that have experience intensively housing dairy cows. The Australian dairy industry is quickly becoming more intensive and our nutritional inexperience in this area is going to cause issues for a large number of producers. Keywords: Dairy, BCS, TMR, Dairy Management, Dairy Nutrition, Ration Formulation, Energy Partitioning, Metabolic health