Monte Carlo simulation was used to predict the long-term financial performance related to the technical performance of dairy herds. The indicators addressed were derived from data collected routinely in the herd. They indicated technical performance that can be affected by the farmer or the consultant, and they were derived from expected cause-effect relations between technical performance and ...

Research has shown that total bacterial count (TBC), which is the bacterial growth per ml of milk over a fixed period of time, can be decreased by good hygiene and farm management practices. The objective of the current study was to quantify the associations between herd management factors and bulk tank TBC in Irish spring calving, grass-based dairy herds. The relationship between bulk tank TBC...

Leitner, G. 162 INTRODUCTION Economic pressure drives modern dairy farmers to exert continuous efforts to maximize profitability. This is achieved by constant improvement of genetic selection, nutrition, and herd management. Modern dairy farms are characterized by high levels of computerized data acquisition, which provides on-line information on cows' milk yield, milk composition and body weig...

In dairy cattle, many farming practices have been associated with occurrence of mastitis but it is often difficult to disentangle the causal threads. Structural equation models may reduce the complexity of such situations. Here, we applied the method to examine the links between mastitis (subclinical and clinical) and risk factors such as herd demographics, housing conditions, feeding procedure...

Johne's disease (JD) is an infectious, progressive, gastrointestinal disease affecting ruminants. Calves are mostly infected in their first six months of life, or in utero. We investigated the impact of specific periparturient management practices on within-herd JD prevalence and economic losses foregone in UK dairy herds by means of data synthesis (systematic appraisal of published evidence an...

Proper nutritional status is critical for optimal production efficiency in the beef cow herd. However, beef producers often take a “one size fits all” approach to feeding the cows in the cow herd. This singular approach to nutrient supply for the cow herd can have serious nutritional and economic ramifications. It should be obvious that not all cows have the same nutrient requirements. Nutritio...

It is widely agreed that a pivotal shift from wild animal hunting to herd animal management, at least of goats, began in the southern Levant by the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (10,000-9,500 cal. BP) when evidence of ritual activities flourished in the region. As our knowledge of this critical change grows, sites that represent different functions and multiple time periods are needed t...

Successful dairy producers must have accurate and reliable records to make sound management decisions. The Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) program provides a comprehensive herd analysis and management report that includes information concerning production, reproduction, genetics, herd health, animal and feed inventory, and finances. The data can be used to improve efficiency of milk production by ...

Genotype by environment interactions (GEI) have attracted increasing attention in tropical breeding programs because of the variety of production systems involved. In this work, we assessed GEI in 450-day adjusted weight (W450) Nelore cattle from 366 Brazilian herds by comparing traditional univariate single-environment model analysis (UM) and random regression first order reaction norm models ...

This paper describes a computer model that mimics the spread of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) infection through a closed herd. The model is able to simulate the spread of infection when a persistently infected (PI) animal is introduced into an infection-free herd, and it is used to investigate the role of persistently infected animals, seroconverting animals, loss of PI calves and duratio...