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Effect of body condition score at calving and diet energy content post calving on the fertility of dairy cows during early and mid-lactation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2017

RA Law*
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, United Kingdom
FJ Young
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, United Kingdom
DC Patterson
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, United Kingdom
CS Mayne
Affiliation:
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Hillsborough, County Down, United Kingdom
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Extract

Poor reproductive performance is a major problem when considering the sustainability of the modern high yielding dairy cow, with reproductive costs being estimated at £500 million per annum across UK dairy herds (Lamming et al., 1998). Armstrong et al., (2001) stated that poor nutrition causes delayed puberty, aberrant oestrous cycles, lowered conception rates and reduced calf birth weight. Excessive and prolonged negative energy balance (NEB) has, on numerous occasions, been suggested as a major contributor to poor fertility and subsequent increased culling rates. In the present study the effects of a range of dietary treatments on energy balance and reproductive performance were evaluated.

Type
Theatre Presentations
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2007

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References

Armstrong, D. G., McEvoy, T. G., Baxter, G., Robinson, J. J., Hogg, C. O., Woad, K. J., Webb, R. and Sinclair, K. D. 2001. Effect of dietary energy and protein on bovine follicular dynamics and embryo production in vitro: Associations with the ovarian insulin-like growth factor system. Biology of Reproduction 64: 1624–1632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lamming, G. E., Darwash, A. O., Wathes, D. C. and Ball, P. J. 1998. The fertility of dairy cattle in the UK: current status and future research. Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England 159: 82–93.Google Scholar
Thomas, C. 2004. Feed into milk: an advisory manual. Nottingham University Press, Nottingham.Google Scholar