This article, from researchers from the University of Montreal and Lactanet, aimed at quantifying the impact and disability weight (DW) of frequent diseases or syndromes of preweaning dairy calves using the perceptions of producers and veterinarians.

For the rest of us that don’t have that technology on hand, there are still plenty of ways to monitor early lactation performance to help us better understand the impact of the specific fatty acids we are feeding – specifically, body condition scoring from pre-fresh to fresh, monitoring NEFAs or BHBAs and tracking first butterfat trends in your herd management software to detect any significant changes in fat mobilization.

Body condition score (BCS), an indicator of relative fatness, which is representative of energy stores, can be visually assessed at any point in time to evaluate the nutritional status of cattle.

One factor that plays a role in the success of the transition period is the cow’s body composition, more specifically the fat and muscle of the cow. Both fat and muscle tissues are mobilized during the transition period to compensate for the negative nutrient balances and provide precursors for milk and milk components.