Assessing the welfare challenges to out-wintered pregnant suckler cows

Assessing the welfare challenges to out-wintered pregnant suckler cows.

Out-wintering beef cows reduces annual housing costs and bedding requirements and there is less exposure to diseases associated with housing. However, to counter these benefits cows may be exposed to conditions that pose a significant challenge to welfare, and ways of assessing this are required. Two feeding treatments were applied to four groups of 10 cows (two groups/treatment), one to mainta...

Suckler beef systems – assessing steps to improve profitability

Introduction Ireland is the fifth largest net exporter of beef in the world, exporting 90% of the total 520,000 tonnes of carcass weight produced in 2014, valued at just under €2.1 billion. A further 210,000 cattle, worth €162 m, were exported live. Beef production is the most ubiquitous farm enterprise activity in Ireland with the beef sector one of the main contributors to the Irish agri-food...

Getting Anovular Cows Pregnant

I will be using the term anovular in this presentation. This means that a cow is not ovulating. Some people prefer the term anestrus. This means a cow is not showing heat or may not be cycling. We are generally evaluating the ovaries in our studies and so we can accurately tell which cows are ovulating but not showing heat and which cows are not ovulating whether or not they are showing heat. I...

Challenges and Barriers to Pregnant Women\'s Nutrition: Policy Recommendations

Factors to Get the Most Cows and Heifers Pregnant

Research has indicated it takes the net revenue from approximately 6 calves to cover the development and production costs of each replacement heifer (E. M. Mousel Unpublished data). In addition, any cow that misses a single calving is not likely to recover the lost revenue of that missed calf (Mathews and Short, 2001). Therefore, longevity of a beef female is important to the sustainability and...