Efficient pasture-based milk production systems require a compact calving pattern aligned to the onset of the grazing season, a 365-day calving interval and low culling rates for infertility. Achievement of these targets requires high herd reproductive performance. While high genetic merit Holstein cows produce more milk in grass-based systems their fertility is compromised. Management of the m...

The expression of oestrous behaviour in Holstein Friesian dairy cows has progressively decreased over the past 50 years. Reduced oestrus expression is one of the factors contributing to the current suboptimal reproductive efficiency in dairy farming. Variation between and within cows in the expression of oestrous behaviour is associated with variation in peripheral blood oestradiol concentratio...

Records on 983 cows born during a period of 10 yr (1966 to 1975) were used to estimate longevity and lifetime productivity of cows raised under range conditions. The cows were from a purebred Hereford and two multibreed synthetic groups, one composed of beef breeds (Beef Synthetic #1) and the other composed of two-thirds dairy breeds and one-third beef breeds (Dairy Synthetic). The cows were ra...

14 15 In this paper the implementation of a tool was considered, based on Machine Learning (ML) techniques to improve 16 the detection of subclinical mastitis in dairy herds. The analysed population included 71 dairy farms in Asturias 17 (Northern Spain) and a total of 2,407 lactating cows. Four sources of information were available: a) a questionnaire 18 survey describing facilities, milking r...

In this study, we sought to identify empirically the types of use and non-use values that motivate dairy farmers in their work relating to animal welfare of dairy cows. We also sought to identify how they prioritize between these use and non-use values. Use values are derived from productivity considerations; non-use values are derived from the wellbeing of the animals, independent of the prese...

Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, and Arcobacter spp. were detected in feces of healthy dairy cows by highly specific multiplex-PCR assays. For C. jejuni, at this one-time sampling, cows from 80.6% of farm operations (n = 31) and 37.7% of individual dairy cattle fecal samples (n = 2,085) were positive. Farm management factors were correlated with prevalence in herds in which >25% of cow...

JAVMA, Vol 230, No. 6, March 15, 2007 T US dairy industry is moving toward fewer dairy farms with more cattle per farm. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of dairy farms decreased by 43.9% (from 139,670 to 78,295), but the total number of milk cows decreased by only 4.5% (from 9.47 to 9.04 million). Consequently, the average herd size for dairies in the United States has almost doubled during th...

Milk fever and subclinical hypocalcemia are the most important macro-mineral metabolic disorders that affect transition dairy cows. Many studies have shown that cows with subclinical hypocalcemia are also prone to many diseases and disorders. The drain of Calcium (Ca) during early lactation represents a significant increase in Ca demand over that for late fetal growth and physiological maintena...

This experiment was aimed to study the association between the DGAT1 K232A polymorphism and milk production traits and somatic cell score (SCS) in Iranian Holstein dairy cows. The records of 408 animals from five dairy herds were randomly identified and then genomic DNA was extracted from blood using the modified-salting method described by Miller. RFLP-PCR was performed to obtain all the polym...