The current market demand and price for organic milk is encouraging dairy producers, particularly those on smaller farms, to consider organic production as a means for improving the economic viability of their operations. Organic production systems vary widely in scale, in practices, and across agroclimatic settings. Within this context, case studies of 4 actual organic dairy farms were used to...

OBJECTIVES The three objectives of this study were to determine the positive predictive value (PPV) of oestrus diagnosis (heat detection accuracy) by dairy farmers, calculate the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the P4 Rapid milk progesterone assay for detecting a corpus luteum and evaluate the economics of using a cow-side milk progesterone assay designed to aid oestrus diagnosis. M...

This study describes the occurrence of preterm calving in Great Britain and evaluates its associations with subsequent milk production and reproductive performances and survival on farm of dairy cows. A total of 53 British dairy farms and 5759 animals with detailed breeding and milk recording data available were used to form two study groups: preterm calving (calving occurring between days 266 ...

Agriculture is a significant emitter of GHGs. Especially ruminant production systems that contribute substantially to global warming due to the enteric fermentation. Ruminant production systems are often integrated in mixed farm systems, including arable production, grassland systems and possibly energy production, which may provide opportunities for mitigation of GHGs when considered as a whol...

Estimates of enteric methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants are typically measured by confining animals in large chambers, using head hoods or masks, or by a ratiometric technique involving sampling respired air of the animal. These techniques are not appropriate to evaluate large-scale farm emissions and the variability between farms that may be partly attributed to different farm management. ...

We investigated the associations between heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and some housing- and individual-related variables using the canonical correspondence analysis (CCOA) method in lactating Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. We collected a total of 5200 5-min interbeat interval (IBI) samples from 260 animals on five commercial dairy farms [smaller-scale farms with 70 (Farm 1, n = 50) an...

*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Yokohama City Institute of Health, Takigashira 1-2-17, Isogo-ku, Yokohama 235-0012, Japan. E-mail: [email protected] On October 2, 2006, a clinic notified health and welfare center A of a case of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7 (VT1 & 2) infection. The patient was a 1year-old girl who developed diarrhea, fever, and hemorrhagic ...

The major components of federal dairy policy — the price support program, federal milk marketing orders, and import quotas — have been in place for more than 50 years. These programs have tried to address the market effects which result from a commodity that is highly perishable; bulky (expensive to transport long distances); produced 365 days a year with a limited ability to alter short-run pr...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic, stochastic, mechanistic simulation model of a dairy business to evaluate the cost and benefit streams coinciding with technology investments. The model was constructed to embody the biological and economical complexities of a dairy farm system within a partial budgeting framework. A primary objective was to establish a flexible, user-...