Effect of body condition at birth on milk production

Abstract

The aim of this review was to analyse papers that studied the relationship between body condition at birth (BCS) and milk production (LP), trying to understand the reasons for the existence or absence of associations obtained between these variables. Some of the possible causes of these discrepancies would be the difficulty of being able to specify the level of body reserves used and the CPC treatments compared, due to the different scales that exist; other reasons would have been the interactions between the variables studied and factors such as diet and productive potential. Aspects relating to the type of study carried out can also be taken into account. When faced with food systems with high energy consumption, the usefulness of body reserves is discussed. Greater reserves at birth have a greater effect when the animals are subjected to lower energy consumption at the beginning of lactation, as is the case with pasture-based production systems. However, precautions should be taken that a high level of reserves will lead to increased mobilization of body tissues, which may be detrimental. The literature agrees that low levels of CCP are undesirable. It is concluded that it is necessary to analyze factors that interfere in the relationship between the CPC and CP in order to obtain certainty about the usefulness of the CPC towards CP.