Data containing 14,188 lactation and reproductive records of Korean Holstein cows at first parity distributed across 3734 herd-year-season groups were analyzed to get genetic (co)variance estimates for milk yield, fat yield, calving ease, and days open. Milk and Fat yields were adjusted to 305 d. Heritabilities and genetic correlations were estimated in two different animal models on which were...

A national sample of cow-calf producers was contacted to participate in a study to describe selected calving management practices on operations throughout the United States. Information was gathered on calving season, frequency of dystocia, frequency of observation, timing of assistance, and calving facilities. Regional and herd size differences existed in all parameters evaluated. Most calves ...

Calving and weaning data from crossbred calves sired by five Bos indicus breeds and one Bos taurus breed were evaluated. Data included calving and weaning records of F1 calves out of multiparous Hereford cows and sired by Angus, Gray Brahman, Gir, Indu-Brazil, Nellore, and Red Brahman bulls. At calving, Angus-sired calves had shorter gestations and lower (more desirable) calving ease scores and...

Heritability of 2-yr-old heifer calving difficulty score was estimated in nine purebred and three composite populations with a total of 5,986 calving difficulty scores from 520 sires and 388 maternal grandsires. Estimates were 0.43 for direct (calf) genetic effects and 0.23 for maternal (heifer) genetic effects. The correlation between direct and maternal effects was -0.26. Direct effects were ...

A recent study evaluating whether reproductive data could be used for syndromic surveillance found an increased frequency of early calving (calving occurring a few days earlier than expected) in areas exposed to the Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8) in northern Europe. A high proportion of herds infected during the 2006-2009 European outbreak were not reported through the surveillance system....

Spring calving Angus and Angus x Hereford multiparous cows were utilized to determine the effects of intramammary treatment with penicillin G procaine (200,000 IU) and novobiocin (400 mg) at the time of weaning on udder health and calf growth after the subsequent calving. Cows were stratified by age and breed and assigned randomly to receive intramammary treatment (n = 99) at weaning or as untr...

A total of 245187 records of the first three lactations of 131126 Holstein cows in tropical conditions were used to estimate the genetic (co)variance components between age at calving and its respective milk productions. A multivariate analysis of six traits was performed. Heritability for age at calving (h2AC) and milk yield (h2MY) decrease from the ...

This study was designed to investigate causes of culling in industrial dairy herds in Fars province and to describe the pattern of reason-specific culling with respect to age of animal and interval from calving to culling. A total number of 9 dairy herds were selected for the study and information about culling reasons, birth date, last calving date and culling date was collected for culled cow...

Two experiments evaluated prebreeding target BW or progestin exposure for heifers developed lighter than traditional recommendations. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of the system on heifer performance through subsequent calving and rebreeding over 3 yr. Heifers (229 kg) were assigned randomly to be developed to 55% of mature BW (299 kg) before a 45-d breeding season (intensive, INT; n = 119...

Urine pH was monitored on a large Midwest dairy, where 161 multiparous cows received CLOSE-UP PELLET as part of their pre-fresh ration (Technical Service Bulletin #308). Pre-calving urine pH among the 8 mature cows treated for milk fever averaged 7.51, while mean urine pH among the 153 other cows was 7.61. At 5.0%, the incidence rate of milk fever was low for multiparous cows. A typical milk fe...