Calving Interval in Dairy Cows in Relation to Heifer Rearing Conditions in Southwest Sweden
Sustained reproductive performance throughout the life of domestic animals can be suspected to require successful rearing of replacements. We studied associations between replacement heifer rearing conditions and reproductive performance throughout the productive life of dairy cows in southwest Swed...
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Published in | Reproduction in domestic animals Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 136 - 141 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford, UK
Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.02.2010
Blackwell Publishing Ltd Blackwell |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Sustained reproductive performance throughout the life of domestic animals can be suspected to require successful rearing of replacements. We studied associations between replacement heifer rearing conditions and reproductive performance throughout the productive life of dairy cows in southwest Sweden by linear mixed modelling. Data consisted of 3542 lactations in 1550 Swedish Reds, Swedish Holsteins or dairy cows of other or mixed breeds, representing all female animals born during 1998 in 107 herds. Median calving interval (CI) was 381, 380 and 377 days in parities 1, 2 and ≥3, respectively. Median observed productive lifetime was 27 months. The applied model included effects of cow housing system, breed, parity, respiratory disease before 3 months of age, whether oestrous detection was performed only at feeding, oestrous-detection ability, calving year, post-calving reproductive disease in a given lactation, milk yield 30 days post-calving relative to the herd mean, the interaction of breed by calfhood respiratory disease and random effects of cow and herd. Severe respiratory disease before 3 months of age in Swedish Red cows was associated with an increase in CI by 12%. Of the total variation in CI, 9.5% was due to herd factors and 12% to cow factors, as opposed to variation between lactations. |
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Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0531.2008.01273.x istex:B7C3908289460D15B5CD1CACDDF93E3E478062F3 ark:/67375/WNG-QVKXKLQ8-8 ArticleID:RDA1273 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0936-6768 1439-0531 1439-0531 |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1439-0531.2008.01273.x |