Analysis of daily body weight of dairy cows in early lactation and associations withproductive and reproductive performance

Abstract

-The objective of this study was to describe daily body weight (BW) changes in the first 100 days of lactation in confined dairy cows and to associate BW loss with productive and reproductive performance. Data included 26,344 daily BW measurements of 372 Holsteins calving between June 2011 and June 2012 in a commercial herd in the South of Brazil. Cows were automatically weighed and were assigned according to parity. Individual measurements were smoothed using cubic splines, generating nadir BW, days to nadir BW and the BW loss (absolute and relative values). This approach used days in milk (DIM) as a single smoothing variable. Body weight at calving differed across parities: 570.5, 653.5, and 699.9 kg, for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd and subsequent parities, respectively. Body weight at nadir also differed across parities: 521.5, 608.8, and 647.3 kg, respectively. Mean days from calving BW to nadir BW and mean loss of BW (kg) from calving to nadir BW did not differ across parities, but relative BW change (kg/100 kg) was larger in animals in first parity (-8.4 kg/100 kg) than second parity (-6.6 kg/100 kg). However, cows in first parity had more chances for good reproduction than cows in third and subsequent parities (44.0% vs. 30.7%, respectively). There was no difference in the probability of adequate reproduction (pregnant until 180 DIM) among cows with low, medium, or high milk yield. Furthermore, cows with low and medium BW loss (below 60 kg of BW change) showed more likelihood to adequate reproduction than cows with high BW loss (above 60 kg of BW): 45.5 and 45.8% vs. 24.4%, respectively. Improvements in fertility of dairy cows should be achieved by minimizing body weight loss in early lactation.

First data-driven approach to using individual cattle weights to estimate mean adult dairy cattle weight in the UK

“…increase throughout the rest of lactation. These results support trends reported in the literature 254 for both body weight and body condition scores(Dillon et al, 2003, Poncheki et al, 2015.…”

Nutrient Intake, Excretion and Use Efficiency of Grazing Lactating Herds on Commercial Dairy Farms

“…Losses and gains in body weight cannot be accounted for in short duration on-farm measurements [29], which may have contributed to the observed range in DMI in this study, noting that for only approximately 0.1% of records all or the majority of the cows in the herd were either in late or early lactation. Compounding the difficulty in accounting for liveweight gains and losses is the influence of parity of the cows as well as their production level on the extent of negative energy balance in early lactation [36,37]. Heat and cold stress also affect energy requirements and DMI [38] with lactating dairy cows tolerating temperature ranges from −0.5 • C up to 25 • C [39].…”

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of milk samples as a tool to estimate energy balance, energy- and dry matter intake in lactating dairy cows

“…This is further supported by the fact that most dairy cows undergo a period of NEB during the first period of lactation, which affects their metabolism and also the composition of milk (Bauman and Currie, 1980). Apart from milk production the energy requirements differ between cows in different parities because cattle have not reached their full mature weight until 4 to 8 years of age and reaching this weight requires energy (Poncheki et al ., 2015). The energy requirements for growth are greatest in the first lactation and reduced in the second lactation, after which the energy requirements for growth are not considered to be significant (Villa-Godoy et al ., 1988).…”