Interactions between body condition, feeding, milk production and reproduction

Abstract

On initial lactation records of 234 cows from 9 dairy farms of the Uruguayan coast, with varied feeding, body condition, milk production levels, reproductive efficiency and selection criteria (and therefore possible genetic potentials), parameters related to the condition (at calving, post-calving drop, at service) plus concentrate supply (CON) were made, which were, in a first stage, related to variables such as milk production (PL), days in heat (OCE) and service (DPSE), 1st service retention (RET). Secondly, the farms were grouped into categories of nutritional adjustment and production potential, studying the behavior of the variables related to the state, the CP and reproductive within these categories, in an attempt to assume the multifactoriality and interaction of these variables analyzed. In the analysis of the 1st stage, the value equal to more than 3 or 3.6 of status at birth (scale 1-5) is associated with DCE less than 60 days or 77 days in multiparous and first calving cows respectively; the RET increases from 48 to 66 % when the status at service increases from < 2.5 to = o> of 2.5. The analysis of dairy farms grouped in categories seems to reasonably describe the best or worst feed-potential production adjustments: greater drops in status in cows with good potential and nutritional deficiencies and vice versa; this attempt at multifactorial analysis allows a better diagnosis of production situations than simple associations of one variable with another.