Significant increases in herd size in the dairy industry have resulted in hired labor providing primary care and management of the cows guided by protocols. Worker training programs have been instituted to provide workers with an understanding of the hows and whys of the protocols they are asked to follow. The ultimate goal of training is to have competent workers carrying out best management p...

There are significant costs associated with reproductive inefficiency in pasture-based dairy herds. This study has quantified the economic effect of a number of key variables associated with reproductive inefficiency in a dairy herd and related them to 6-week calving rate for both cows and heifers. These variables include: increased culling costs, the effects of sub optimum calving dates, incre...

Among the costs attributed to Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection in dairy cattle, the effects on reproduction and culling are the least documented. To estimate the cost of MAP infections and Johne's disease in a dairy herd, the rates of calving and culling were calculated for cows in each stage of MAP infection relative to uninfected cows. Data from 6 commercial dairy her...

An epidemiological and molecular investigation of a cutaneous suppurative infection with Staphylococcus aureus in a dairy farmer, occurring concurrently with an outbreak of clinical mastitis in his herd, was carried out. A common aetiology for the diseases in the farmer and his cows was established by combining clinical evidence with a molecular genomic analysis of the bacterial isolates using ...

Summary studies of dairy cow removal indicate increasing levels of mortality over the past several decades. This poses a serious problem for the US dairy industry. The objective of this project was to evaluate associations between facilities, herd management practices, disease occurrence and death rates on US dairy operations through an analysis of the National Animal Health Monitoring System's...

A bulk milk quality assurance programme for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map) in dairy herds was simulated with a stochastic simulation model (JohneSSim). The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological and economic effects of preventive management measures and various test schemes in a simulated population of closed Dutch dairy herds over a 20-year period. Herds were ...

The objectives of this presentation are to review results of our previous and on-going research with respect to the risk factors and consequences of poor reproductive performance in dairy cows, and to develop an economic framework to optimize decisions related to dairy cow reproductive performance. To make profitable breeding and replacement decisions, the farmer must account for factors includ...

We present the building of a discrete event multimodel simulation tool of livestock farming systems, regrouping several mathematical models, and reproducing cattle herd performances through an individual based model. The main goal of this simulator is to study and predict consequences of mastitis occurrences on dairy herds taking into account individual characteristics of animals and seasonal a...

Dairy farmers have been able to use sexed semen from dairy breeds to pre-determine the sex of calves since 2000, sexed semen from beef bulls is not currently commercially available, but is expected within 2 years. A survey of a stratified random sample of suckler cow farmers is used to identify the potential uptake of sexed semen when it becomes available using a logistic limited dependent vari...

The concept of Precision Dairy Farming is, to a crucial degree, based on data collection related to individual animals. In dairy farming, the amount of data per individual animal will increase. Thus, a particular meaning has the use of this data through decision support systems. A particular meaning has the use of this data through decision support system In the present article, the chosen exam...