The Animal Biology

EVALUATION OF REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE ON LARGE-SCALE HUNGARIAN DAIRY FARMS

L. Ózsvári, I. Fodor

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The aim of our study was to survey the reproductive performance of replacement heifers and cows in large commercial dairy herds by collecting the most commonly used reproductive indices and to introduce novel parameters to evaluate fertility in dairy units.

The authors surveyed the major reproductive indices on 34 large commercial dairy farms from all the statistical regions in Hungary between May and November 2015. Individual data were gathered for 50,396 heifers first inseminated between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2014, and for 25,672 cows that calved between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2014 in the surveyed herds. The number of cows covered 14.6 % of the total Hungarian milk recorded Holstein-Friesian cow population.

The average (±standard deviation) age at first service, age at first calving and average first service conception rate (CR1) were 15.53±1.59 months, 25.61±2.22 months and 47.10 %, respectively. 8.6 % of the inseminated heifers were culled prior to first calving, at 23.94±3.95 months of age, on average. For cows, calving interval (CI) was 435 days (392–490), CR1 was 26.52 % (11.26–51.40 %), and services per conception (SPC) was 4.04 (2.56–6.16), respectively. The breeding interval (IBI) was 31.38 days (22.00–56.03), and the proportion of reproductive culling was 31.68 % out of all premature disposals (7.57–69.70 %), on average.

The use of some relevant parameters (PR, CR1, CCI) is enough for the daily routine, but in-depth analysis is required when the reproductive performance is diminishing.

Keywords: DAIRY CATTLE, REPRODUCTION, REPRODUCTIVE PARAMETERS, PREGNANCY RATE, CALVING INTERVAL

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