There is an intricate relationship between milk production, fertility and survival of cows, which is further confounded by management decisions on the farm. Holsteinization and selection for high milk production can be associated with reduction in cow fertility (Pryce et al., 1998; Silvia, 1998; Harris and Winkelman, 2000) because of its impact on physiological factors affecting reproduction su...

Dairy cows have shown a steep increase in milk production, which is unfortunately characterized by a dramatic decline in reproductive performance. In these modern high yielding cows authors worldwide mention a higher number of puerperal problems, such as retained placenta, acute metritis and abnormal vaginal discharge. All of which are known to negatively influence reproductive capacity of thes...

The addition of supplemental fatty acid (FA) sources to diets is a common practice in dairy nutrition to increase dietary energy density and to support milk production. Recently, the effects of individual FA on digestibility, metabolism, and production responses of dairy cows has received renewed attention. In fresh cows, the high metabolic demand of lactation and reduced DMI during the immedia...

Our objective was to compare mammary tissue gene expression profiles during a Streptococcus uberis (S. uberis) mastitis challenge between lactating cows subjected to dietary-induced negative energy balance (NEB; n = 5) and cows fed ad libitum to maintain positive energy balance (PEB; n = 5) to better understand the mechanisms associated with NEB and risk of mastitis during the transition period...

The objectives of the study were to compare the ovarian activity of Holstein-Friesian (CH HF), Fleckvieh (CH FV) and Brown Swiss (CH BS) dairy cows of Swiss origin with that of Holstein-Friesian (NZ HF) dairy cows of New Zealand origin, the latter being used as a reference for reproductive performance in pasture-based seasonal calving systems. Fifty, second-lactation NZ HF cows were each paired...

Identification of nonpregnant dairy cows early after AI improves reproductive efficiency and the 21-day pregnancy rate by decreasing the interval between AI services thereby increasing the AI service rate (Fricke, 2002). Thus, new technologies to identify nonpregnant dairy cows early after AI may play a key role in management strategies to improve reproductive efficiency and profitability on da...