Inbreeding coefficients of artificially bred Ayrshire, Guernsey, Holstein, Jersey, and Brown Swiss cows were calculated from relationships between sires and maternal male ancestors. Percentages of inbred cows and average inbreeding coefficients of inbred cows were: Ayrshire, 26 and 11%; Guernsey, 11 and 4%; Holstein, 31 and 1%; Jersey 23 and 2%; and Brown Swiss, 23 and 2%. Percentages of inbred...

Milk fever is one of the most important metabolic diseases in dairy cattle. Reducing the dietary cation/anion balance (DCAD) with anionic salts is a common prevention strategy. However, many small European farms cannot use total mixed rations (TMR) in the close-up period. Including anionic salts in compound feeds can result in feed refusals and moderate inclusions to preserve feed palatability ...

Forty-six Holstein heifers were used in a completely randomized design and assigned to 1 of 2 treatments to evaluate the effects of 2 diets varying in ruminal fermentable carbohydrate sources, namely ground corn (GC) and rolled wheat (RW), on metabolism and performance of primiparous cows in the periparturient period. The heifers were fed diets as a total mixed ration (TMR) with similar energy ...

Human-animal relationships are essential for dairy farming. They affect work comfort and efficiency, as well as milk production. A poor human-animal relationship can result in stress and accidents to both animals and caretakers and needs to be improved. However, many studies have demonstrated the multifactoriality of these relationships. We aimed at assessing the relative importance of the vari...

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...

Survival rates and productive herd life were examined for 13.8 million US dairy cows that calved from January 1, 1980, through March 2, 2005. Cows that left the herd for dairy purposes or were from herds that discontinued Dairy Herd Improvement testing were excluded from any calculations to prevent underestimation of population longevity. Mean lactation length for cows without subsequently reco...

OBJECTIVE Aim of the current comparative study was to evaluate production outputs, reproduction efficiency and functional traits in dual-purpose Fleckvieh and Braunvieh cows, reared under temperate European conditions. METHODS A data-set from 414 Fleckvieh and 42 Braunvieh cows and 799 lactations was analysed. ID tag number, milk yield per milking session, number of steps/interval and milk co...

The present study aimed to estimate the effects of parity, calving season and year of calving on the prevalence of subclinical mastitis in Holstein cows. A total of 2682 records from 869 Holstein cows in a large dairy farm (Azarbaijan province, Iran), respecting the period from 2006 to 2009, were collected. Data was analyzed using Proc Mixed of SAS software by MIVQUE method. Subclinical mastiti...

The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic relationship between body condition score (BCS) and calving traits (including calving ease and calf survival) for Ayrshire second-parity cows in Canada. The use of random regression models allowed assessment of the change of genetic correlation from 100 d before calving to 335 d after calving. Therefore, the influence of BCS in the dry ...

BACKGROUND Objectives of the study were to document the impact of some management factors on the occurrence of clinical mastitis in primiparous dairy cows and to identify common udder pathogens of clinical mastitis in freshly calved heifers and multiparous cows on the day of calving. METHODS A one-year study was conducted during 2004 and 2005 in 11 selected Estonian dairy herds. Data consiste...