Body condition scoring (BCS) is a practical and validated tool for assessing nutritional welfare in dairy cattle, enabling early intervention before clinical disease develops.
Body condition loss in dairy cows reflects negative energy balance — a state in which cows cannot eat enough to meet the demands of milk production. Severe negative energy balance causes ketosis, fatty liver, displaced abomasum, and immunosuppression, all of which cause significant suffering. Cows with very low BCS are chronically malnourished and experience the same negative affective states associated with hunger in other species. Using BCS as a welfare audit metric and acting on thin cows with nutritional interventions prevents escalation to clinical disease.