The dairy industry has made large advances in efficiencies over the past 60 years as a result of changes in breeding, nutrition and management practices [1]. To meet the growing demand for dairy products, which is projected to continue out to the year 2050 [2], milk production per cow has increased over the last thirty years primarily by genetic selection and better nutrition. Genetic selection...

Hereford cows were randomly bred to Hereford, Angus, Simmental X Hereford and Simmental sires. Each sire breed group was represented by nine or 10 sires. These matings produced approximately 100 calves in each sire breed group over 4 yr. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of calf breed on characteristics of the cow such as milk production, reproduction, measures of conditio...

The cost of milk production by farm size was decomposed into frontier and efficiency components with a stochastic cost curve using data on 755 USA dairy farms from the year 2000. The estimated frontier function is much flatter than the composite cost curve, and although the frontier cost of production decreases with farm size, that cost reduction is not as pronounced as a cost curve that includ...

A two-year dairy study was conducted under irrigation at Lincoln, Canterbury, comparing 1. Moderate stocking rate (MSR, 3.9 cows/ha; comparative (CSR) of 89 kg live weight (LWT)/t DM (dry matter) offered; 150 nitrogen (N) fertiliser/ha/year; grain supplementation 0.55 t DM/cow/year; wintering cows off- farm); or 2. Low (LSR, 2.9 CSR 91 LWT/t grazing diverse pasture (Italian ryegrass, plantain, ...

The objectives of this paper were to briefly review progress in the genetic evaluation of novel traits in Canada and the United States, assess methods to predict selection accuracy based on cow reference populations, and illustrate how the use of indicator traits could increase genomic selection accuracy. Traits reviewed are grouped into the following categories: udder health, hoof health, othe...

The effect of calf weaning age on cow and calf performance and feed utilization was investigated over 2 yr. Multiparous, crossbred, lactating beef cows (n = 156) with summer-born calves were blocked by prebreeding BW, stratified by calf age, and assigned randomly to 1 of 4 treatments within strata. The experiment was a randomized complete block design with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treat...

The Maasai have high rates of death from neonatal tetanus, partly due to their custom of packing the umbilical stump with cow dung. We report on the effect of a simple health promotion programme, designed in consultation with the local community and carried out by local women. After introduction of the programme in 1981, neonatal (<6 weeks of age) tetanus rates fell sharply, and by 1988 annual ...

40 percent of annual production costs in typical cow/calf operations. These costs also have a dramatic impact on cost per unit of gain in stocker operations. Consequently, cattle producers must continually evaluate new methods to make efficient use of available resources while optimizing animal performance and minimizing supplementation costs. Often, when cattle graze marginal to low quality fo...

This paper investigates the research and development carried out with bio-gas energy technologies. Its describe the Bio-gas technologies that are commercially available technologies and performance evaluation in real in-situ term periodical gas pressure monitoring of gas holder and also carried out the experimental study of gas consumption in a Controlled cooking test (CCT). The World Cow Resea...

The objective of this research, was to quantify sustainability indicators of organic dairy farms using Automatic Milking Systems (AMS), and a comparative group of organic dairy farms using conventional milking systems (CMS). Milk yield per cow was higher for AMS farms but did not result in higher net return to management. Nitrogen surplus per ha of available land was higher for AMS farms, Anima...