________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Belgian Blue double-muscled (BBDM) heifers (n = 341) were used to investigate the effect of body weight (BW) at first calving at an age of two years (BWC). Females with a birth weight (BWB) <40 kg realized a lower body weight gain (BWG) up to an age of four months and they also had a significant lower BWC....

Age at first calving (AFC) affects the profitability of dairy enterprises. This study examined the relationships between AFC and subsequent fertility, milk production and survival up to third calving in UK Holstein-Friesian heifers; Study 1 comprised 134 consecutively born heifers from the same herd (AFC 764 ± 8 days) and Study 2 contained 445 heifers born on 17 farms (AFC 796 ± 6 days). Growth...

The incidence of mortality and culling in Holstein-Friesian heifers from birth through first calving was determined on 19 dairy farms selected from across southern England. The outcome of 1097 calvings was determined. Size (BW, heart girth, crown-rump length and height at withers) and insulin-like growth factor-I concentration of live heifer calves were measured at a mean age of 26 ± 0.7 days (...

Fertility and reproductive performance of Landim and Africander females were compared using data collected from 1968 to 1981 at the Chobela Research Station in Mozambique. Breeds were managed together and grouped by age and sex, except when separated for breeding. Traits were relative fertility (probability of fertile females calving from the first breeding season), age at first calving, first ...

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...

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...

The main objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters for multi-trait evaluation of birth weight (BW), gestation length (GL) and calving difficulty (CD) in first-parity Iranian Holstein dairy cattle. The data included 29,950 calving records collected during 1995 to 2014 by the Animal Breeding and Improvement Center of Iran. A threshold-linear sire-maternal grandsire model was ...