Several measures of life cycle cow efficiency were calculated using weights and individual feed consumptions recorded on 160 dams of beef, dairy and beef X dairy breeding and their progeny. Ratios of output to input were used to estimate efficiency, where outputs included weaning weights of progeny plus salvage value of the dam and inputs included creep feed consumed by progeny plus feed consum...

A 4-yr study using 217 cows/yr (3/4 Red Angus, 1/4 Simmental) evaluated effects of calving date and wintering system on cow and calf performance from birth to harvest. Cows were assigned to 1 of 5 treatments: 1) March (Mar) calving cows wintered on native range, 2) Mar calving cows wintered on corn residue, 3) June (Jun) calving cows wintered on native range, 4) Jun calving cows wintered on cor...

Index: I. Feeding Pasteurized Milk to Dairy Calves – BAMN II. Precautions for Feeding Raw Waste Milk – Dairy & Animal Science, Pennsylvania State University, www.das.psu.edu/dairy/ III. Considerations for using Commercial On-Farm Pasteurization Systems Department of Dairy and Animal Science, The Pennsylvania State University, www.das.psu.edu/dairy/ IV. Calf Note #148 – Supplementing waste milk ...

In a previous study from 2014 it was found that US Holstein cows that gave birth to heifer calves produced more milk than cows having bull calves. We wanted to assess whether this is also true for Danish cattle. Data from 578 Danish Holstein herds were analysed with a mixed effect model and contrary to the findings in the US, we found that cows produced higher volumes of milk if they had a bull...

Breeding objectives for beef cattle in Ireland were derived and used to define selection sub-indexes. The intention of the sub-indexes was to simplify selection decisions by commercial bull and semen buyers for situations where all of the resulting progeny are slaughtered, or when some female progeny are kept as replacement breeding cows. Separate sets of economic values for calving ease and ge...

An observational study was conducted to quantify the effects of management practices on reproductive performance and disorders of beef cows. The study population consisted of 44 randomly selected Colorado cow-calf herds monitored for disease and reproductive events as part of the National Animal Health Monitoring System. The managers of the herds were surveyed with a standardized questionnaire ...

Genetic effects for many dairy traits and for total economic merit are evenly distributed across all chromosomes. A high-density scan using 38,416 single nucleotide polymorphism markers for 5,285 bulls confirmed 2 previously known major genes on Bos taurus autosomes (BTA) 6 and 14 but revealed few other large effects. Markers on BTA18 had the largest effects on calving ease, several conformatio...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of maternal inbreeding on incidence of twinning,dystocia and stillbirth in Holstein cows of Iran. Calving records from March 2000 to April 2009 comprisingof 365,021 calvings on 153,802 cows from 86 dairy herds were used. The mean level of inbreeding was0.7%, less than 37% of all animals were inbred, and a small proportion (3.45%) of inbree...

The experiment involved observations of 2,514 Holstein-Friesian cows to determine the effects of environmental factors (cow's age, calving season, weight and sex of calves, housing system) and genetic factors on gestation length in dairy cattle and the correlation between gestation length and other reproductive traits (calving ease, stillbirth rates and placental expulsion). Genetic parameters ...