Analysis of early calfhood health status and subsequent dairy herd survivorship and productivity

Britney, J. B.; Martin, S W; Stone, J. B.; Curtis, R A

doi:10.1016/0167-5877(84)90023-0

Cited by 31 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…Alternatively, the cases, although coded as severe, might have been comparatively mild or well managed. In a study of 460 calves in 2 herds, Britney et al (1984) found calfhood navel or joint disease to shorten median length of productive life by 30 months, but found no significant effect of calfhood respiratory or gastrointestinal disease within 90 d of birth. When studying 787 animals in 25 herds without scoring calfhood diseases by severity, Warnick et al (1994) found no statistically significant association between calfhood respiratory or gastrointestinal disease and survival after calving.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heifer rearing conditions affect length of productive life in Swedish dairy cows

Hultgren

Svensson

2009

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

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Associations between rearing conditions and the risk of culling in dairy cows were studied by survival analysis. Data were collected from 1039 Swedish Red cows, 1029 Swedish Holsteins, and 56 cows of other milk or cross-breeds, representing all female animals born in 109 Swedish herds during 1998. Length of productive life was defined as the number of days from 1st calving to culling. The applied Weibull proportional hazards model included time-independent effects of breed, housing from 3 to 7 months of age, number of housing changes before calving, grazing before 1st calving, herd median age at 1st calving, age at 1st calving, cow housing, herd lactational incidence risk of veterinary-reported clinical mastitis, and the random effect of herd. Time-dependent effects were year, month, the interaction year by month, parity, number of breedings, pregnancy status, the interaction parity by pregnancy status, herd mean milk-production level, relative milk yield within breed-parity, and veterinary-reported clinical mastitis. The lactation was divided into six stages in which pregnancy status was assumed to be known by the farmer and culling could occur. Median productive life time in culled cows was 780 d and 14% of the records were censored due to terminated data collection. An individual calving age of 28.2-30.9 months was associated with the highest culling risk, 1.2-fold higher than calving at ≤25.3 months, whereas the risk decreased almost linearly with a higher herd median age at 1 st calving. Housing in slatted pens with >7 calves from 3 to 7 months was associated with a 1.7-fold increase in risk, relative to litter pens. If a cow had changed housing system 4 times before 1st calving it increased the risk of culling 1.4 times, relative to two housing changes. These results show that rearing factors affect the productive life time of dairy cows in Swedish family operations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies on long-term effects of calfhood health (e.g. Britney et al, 1984;Warnick et al, 1994) included few animals and thus suffered from limited statistical power.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heifer rearing conditions affect length of productive life in Swedish dairy cows

Hultgren

Svensson

2009

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

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“…Diarrhoea in young pre-weaned calves is one of the most important causes of calf morbidity and mortality (Oxender et al, 1973;Tzipori, 1981;Olsson et al, 1993). Disease incidence in young calves has an adverse effect on their immediate health status, longevity in the herd and productivity performance and thus causes great economic loss (Britney et al, 1984;Vanopdenbosch and Pohl, 1993). In order to increase productivity per livestock unit without increasing livestock numbers, it is important to identify the etiological and predisposing factors involved in calf diarrhoea in order to devise preventive measures and reduce losses during the initial months of life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious agents associated with diarrhoea of calves in the canton of Tilarán, Costa Rica

Pérez

Kummeling

Janssen

et al. 1998

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

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A case-control study of calves under 3 months of age was carried out by weekly visits to 15 farms in the canton of Tilarán, Costa Rica. Most farms were dedicated to beef or dual-purpose (DP) production. Faecal samples were collected over a 6-month period from a total of 194 calves with clinical signs and from 186 animals without clinical signs of diarrhoea as assessed by a scoring system. The samples were investigated for the presence of viruses, bacteria and parasites. Torovirus was detected for the first time in Costa Rica and was present in 14% of calves with diarrhoea and in 6% of the controls. Coronavirus and Rotavirus were less frequently encountered in either one of the groups (in 9 and 7% of scouring calves and in 1 and 2% of controls, respectively). Escherichia coli was detected in 94% of all the faecal samples, but isolates from only three samples from calves with diarrhoea contained the K99 antigen. Similarly, Salmonella was found only in scouring calves. Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected in animals with signs of diarrhoea, while other coccidia oocysts, Strongylida and Strongyloides eggs were frequently found in animals both with and without diarrhoea. A conditional logistic regression (CLR) analysis to compare healthy and scouring calves showed a significant difference with regard to the presence of Torovirus, Rotavirus and Coronavirus.

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“…Few studies have focused on the influence of calfhood health on subsequent milk production and most have used small numbers of animals (Britney et al, 1985). Numerous experimental studies have reported on effects of feeding regimes and daily weight gains, but these have mostly dealt with first-lactation production and few explore associations with multi-lactational production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rearing conditions and lifetime milk revenues in Swedish dairy cows

Hultgren

Svensson

Pehrsson³

2011

Livestock Science

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Associations between replacement heifer rearing conditions and lifetime milk revenues were studied throughout the productive life of Swedish dairy cows. Data were collected from 2127 cows, mainly Swedish Reds and Swedish Holsteins, representing all female animals born during 1998 in 110 herds and followed until May 2006. Lifetime net milk revenues were calculated for each cow based on the length of productive life, lifetime milk production, a fixed milk price of 0.3 €/kg ECM, and estimated costs for heifer rearing and cow feed. Median observed productive lifetime to culling, death, selling off or terminated recording was 26.9 mo. Mean lifetime production was 9209 kg ECM/cow-yr, calculated from monthly testday yields. Rearing costs (median 631 €) were estimated using a template developed for Swedish advisory services, including costs related to purchase, feeding, labour, building investment, building maintenance and breeding. Net milk revenues had a median of 1169 €/cow-yr during productive life and were heavily skewed. Diarrhea and respiratory disease before 7 mo of age had occurred in 11 and 11% of the cows, respectively, the majority cases being mild. The mean prepubertal growth rate was 670 g/day. Cow net revenue values were transformed to achieve normality and analysed by a linear mixed model including fixed effects of breed, calf housing system from 3 to 7 mo of age, body condition score at 1st breeding, year of 1st calving, age at 1st calving, cow housing system, mean milk cell count, the interaction between calf housing and breed, the interaction between cow housing and breed, and the random effect of herd. The model predicted net revenues to decrease with age at 1st calving and with body condition score at breeding over 4. Our results show that replacement rearing factors influence net milk revenues of a dairy operation and suggest that current recommendations to breed dairy heifers for calving at 24 mo are economically justified.

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Analysis of early calfhood health status and subsequent dairy herd survivorship and productivity

Cited by 31 publications

References 1 publication

Heifer rearing conditions affect length of productive life in Swedish dairy cows

Heifer rearing conditions affect length of productive life in Swedish dairy cows

Infectious agents associated with diarrhoea of calves in the canton of Tilarán, Costa Rica

Rearing conditions and lifetime milk revenues in Swedish dairy cows

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