The prophylactic use of a dry-cow antibiotic for reducing the incidence of mastitis due to Streptococcus uberis was studied in four seasonally calving dairy herds involving 378 cows. The treatment was a long-acting dry-cow antibiotic preparation administered immediately after the last milking of lactation. New intramammary infections were identified by comparing the bacteriological status of qu...

Milk for cheese production in Ireland is predominantly produced by pasture-fed spring-calving herds. Consequently, there are marked seasonal changes in milk composition, which arise from the interactive lactational, dietary and environmental factors. In this study, Cheddar cheese was manufactured on a laboratory scale from milk taken from a spring calving herd, over a 9-month lactation cycle be...

introduction: age at first calving (afc) has an important effect on profitability and reproductive management of dairy cattle. every month increase in afc beyond 24 months increases the cost of production. the time between birth and first calving represents a period in which replacement heifers are not generating income. instead this rearing period requires considerable capital expenditures inc...

Variance and covariance components for milk yield, survival to second freshening, calving interval in first lactation were estimated by REML with the expectation and maximization algorithm for an animal model which included herd-year-season effects. Cows without calving interval but with milk yield were included. Each of the four data sets of 15 herds included about 3000 Holstein cows. Relation...

The effects of anionic salts in the transition diet on serum and urine calcium at calving and on peripartal health, subsequent milk production and fertility performance were studied in a well-managed, high-producing Friesland dairy herd. Over a period of a year, approximately 21 days before the expected date of calving, 28 pre-partum heifers and 44 multiparous dry cows were randomly allocated w...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of birth weight (BW) on future milk production and reproductive performance in Iranian Holstein cattle. Records of Holstein cows between 1967 and 2010 were obtained from the Animal Breeding Center of Iran. Birth weights within each herd were grouped into five categories based on the standard normal distribution curves (z ≤-0.8416, -0.841...

A practical protocol to study udder immune status in field conditions was planned with the aim to assess different non-specific immune parameters in milk samples from dairy heifers during the periparturient period. Five herds located in northern Italy were selected and overall 39 heifers were enrolled in the trial. Milk samples were taken at 7, 14, 21, 28, 45, 60, and 75 days after calving. The...

Gestation length, birth weight calving difficulty, calf mortality rate at birth, calf mortality rate from birth to weaning, preweaning calf growth rate and calf 200-d weight were evaluated in a biological type study in which four sire breeds were bred by AI to Hereford dams. Angus and Red Poll sires represented breeds of medium size, and Pinzgauer and Simmental sires represented large breeds. A...

to evaluate the effects of different dry period lengths on milk yield, milk composition, reproductive performance and energy balance in dairy cows, 30 holstein breeds (average 270 days pregnant) were made use of in a randomized complete block design. cows were assigned to three treatments (60, 45 and 30 days of dry period) and two blocks as based on parity (either first lactation or multifariou...

Both clinical and subclinical deficiency of calcium and magnesium may cause problems in dairy cows. Clinical hypocalcaemia most commonly occurs at calving and onset of lactation and is associated with milk fever, while clinical hypomagnesaemia occurs under certain dietary conditions. Factors affecting the calcium and magnesium status in dairy cows were examined in this thesis. The effect of die...