Citation: Petrovski, K.R.; Cusack, P.; Malmo, J.; Cockcroft, P. The Value of ‘Cow Signs’ in the Assessment of the Quality of Nutrition on Dairy Farms. Animals 2022, 12, 1352. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ani12111352 Academic Editor: Cristina Castillo Rodríguez Received: 11 April 2022 Accepted: 23 May 2022 Published: 25 May 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). animals Review The Value of ‘Cow Signs’ in the Assessment of the Quality of Nutrition on Dairy Farms Kiro Risto Petrovski 1, * , Paul Cusack 2 , Jakob Malmo 3 and Peter Cockcroft 4 1 Davies Livestock Research Centre, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Roseworthy Campus, Roseworthy 5371, Australia 2 Australian Livestock Production Services, Cowra 2794, Australia; alpscowdr@bigpond.com 3 MAFFRA Veterinary Centre, Maffra 3860, Australia; jmalmo@maffravet.com.au 4 School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Surrey, Guilford, Surrey GU2 7AL, UK; p.cockcroft@surrey.ac.uk * Correspondence: kiro.petrovski@adelaide.edu.au Simple Summary: Cow signs are behavioral, physiological, and management parameters that can be observed and measured. Cow signs can be used as a field approach to evaluate the composition of the ration, the quality of rumen fermentation, the quality of digestion, and the general herd health of cattle of interest. This review of cow signs associated with nutrition provides farm advisors, consultants, nutritionists, practitioners, and dairy farmers with an additional toolkit that can be used to improve the assessment of the quality of dairy cattle nutrition. ‘Cow signs’ are not to be used alone as a sole tool for assessment of the quality or nutrition of dairy cows. Some of the ‘cow signs’ are incorporated in precision technologies on many dairy farms and are extensively used in the assessment of dairy cow welfare, health, and nutrition. Abstract: The aim of this review is to provide dairy farm advisors, consultants, nutritionists, practi- tioners, and their dairy farmer clients with an additional toolkit that can be used in the assessment of the quality of their dairy cattle nutrition. Cow signs are behavioral, physiological, and management parameters that can be observed and measured. They are detected by examining and observing the cattle. Other physiological parameters such as fecal scoring, rumen fill, and body condition scoring are also included in ‘cow signs’. The assessment should be both qualitative and quantitative; for example, is the cattle individual lame and what is the severity of lameness. The ‘diagnosis’ of a problem should be based on establishing a farm profile of ‘cow signs’ and other relevant information. Information gathered through assessment of cow signs should be used as an advisory tool to assist and improve decision making. Cow signs can be used as part of an investigation and or farm audit. Keywords: appetite; demeanor; fecal digestibility scoring; fecal scoring; fecal perineal staining; obtundancy; prehension; rumen fill scoring; rumination; thirst 1. Introduction Dairy cattle productivity, health, and fertility are significantly affected by the quality and quantity of the nutrition, making dairy cattle nutrition an important profit driver [1]. The biggest issue when feeding dairy cattle is addressing both metabolic compartments, namely, the rumen microbes and the bovine tissues [2,3]. Therefore, the nutrition should aim to keep the rumen functioning optimally whilst providing the appropriate levels of nutrients for health, maintenance, and production [4]. The assessment of the quality and quantity of dairy cattle nutrition is a critical task for dairy herd practitioners, consultants, and dairy farmers/managers. The term practitioners in this article means a herd-level advisor or consultant, nutritionist, or veterinary practitioner. A variety of approaches to assess the adequacy of nutrition in dairy cattle have been adopted by veterinarians in practice or consultancy services. The majority of practitioners Animals 2022, 12, 1352. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12111352 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals