The reproductive success of sibling cocklebur plants (Compositae: Xunthium strumarium) was monitored after growth at different levels of availability of water and nutrient resources. Variation in reproductive success among individual plants was related to physiological, structural, and phenological characteristics. Reproductive success increased with increased availability of resources, but the...

Identification of nonpregnant dairy cows early after AI improves reproductive efficiency and the 21-day pregnancy rate by decreasing the interval between AI services thereby increasing the AI service rate (Fricke, 2002). Thus, new technologies to identify nonpregnant dairy cows early after AI may play a key role in management strategies to improve reproductive efficiency and profitability on da...

A number of reviews have highlighted the importance of nutrition in regulating bovine reproductive efficiency (Cardoso et al., 2013; Grummer et al., 2010; Santos et al., 2010; Wiltbank et al., 2006). The effects of nutrition in the embryo donor cow have been particularly emphasized (Santos et al., 2008; Sartori et al., 2010; Sartori et al., 2013; Velazquez, 2011; Wu et al., 2013). This review w...

Sexual selection operates through consecutive episodes of selection that ultimately contribute to the observed variance in reproductive success between individuals. Understanding the relative importance of these episodes is challenging, particularly because the relevant postcopulatory fitness components are often difficult to assess. Here, we investigate different episodes of sexual selection o...

Reproductive efficiency is of economic importance in commercial beef cattle production, as failure to achieve pregnancy reduces the number of calves marketed per cow exposed. Identification of genetic markers with predictive merit for reproductive success would facilitate early selection of sires with daughters having improved reproductive rate without increasing generation intervals. To identi...