Effects of continuous milking during a field trial on productivity, milk protein yield and health in dairy cows

Abstract

The objective of this field study with an automatic milking system was to evaluate the effects of omitting the dry period on health and productivity during the subsequent lactation in dairy cows. A total of 98 German Simmental cows of six Southern German farms were assigned randomly to two experimental groups: The first group was dried-off 56 days before calving (D for dried-off, n = 49), and the second group was milked continuously during this period until calving (CM for continuous milking, n = 49). From the latter a third group emerged, including cows that dried-off themselves spontaneously (DS for dried-off spontaneously, n = 14). Blood serum values of glucose, β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and IGF-1 showed most pronounced fluctuations in D cows. Over the entire study period, the concentrations of BHBA and NEFA were markedly lower in the CM and DS groups. Furthermore, IGF-1 concentration was lowest for D cows and also decrease in back fat thickness was more pronounced. Mean concentration of milk protein was markedly higher in CM and DS cows (3.70% and 3.71%) compared with D cows (3.38%). Owing to the lower 305-day milk yield (−15.6%) and the lower total milk yield (−3.1%), the total amount of produced protein in the subsequent lactation was 2.5% (6.8 kg) lower, although the additional protein amount in CM cows from week −8 to calving was 35.7 kg. The greatest benefit resulted from positive effects on fertility and the lower incidence of diseases: CM cows had their first oestrus 1 week earlier compared with D cows, they also conceived earlier and showed a significantly lower risk of developing hypocalcaemia, ketosis and puerperal disorders. The present study showed that the costs of medical treatment and milk losses were twice as high in D cows, compared with CM and DS cows, and thus the reduced costs because of the more stable health outweighed the financial losses of milk yield by + 18.49 € per cow and lactation.

Growth and Survival Parameters and Blood IgG and Total Protein Levels of Calves Born in the First Production Year of Brown Swiss and Simmental Cows

“…The values we found for birth weight were lower than the values found by Schnitzenlehner, et al [7] and Köpf, et al [8] for Simmental; higher than the values reported by Özlütürk, et al [9] and Koçak, et al [10] for Simmental, and by Uğur, et al [11] for Brown Swiss; and consistent with the values reported by Koçyiğit, et al…”

Bacterial isolates exhibiting multidrug resistance, hemolytic activity, and high 16S rRNA gene similarity with well‐known pathogens found in camel milk samples of Riyadh region

“…). Variations of individual biochemical properties within the samples were also observed, which may be due to the diet, season, age, and type of camels as has also been observed for cows in previous studies .…”

Review: Dry period length in dairy cows and consequences for metabolism and welfare and customised management strategies

“…Some studies reported no effect of dry period length on plasma BHBA in early lactation De Feu et al, 2009;Chen et al, 2015), while others reported a reduction of plasma BHBA due to omitting (Andersen et al, 2005;Klusmeyer et al, 2009;Van Hoeij et al, 2017a) or shortening (Klusmeyer et al, 2009;Schlamberger et al, 2010) of the dry period. Three studies that reported ketosis after a conventional or no dry period described that ketosis did not occur in cows with no dry period, compared with an incidence of 5% (no statistical analysis presented; Rastani et al, 2005), 10% (P = 0.05; Köpf et al, 2014) or 25% (P = 0.18; Schlamberger et al, 2010) in cows with a standard dry period. Furthermore, a meta-analysis reported a tendency (P = 0.09) for a lower odds for clinical ketosis in cows after a short dry period, compared with cows after a conventional dry period length (Van Knegsel et al, 2013a).…”

“…The reduction in revenues from milk might be financially compensated by a reduction in disease costs: for example, no ketosis occurred in experimental studies where the dry period was omitted, whereas the incidence was 4.8% to 25% in the respective control groups with a standard dry period Schlamberger et al, 2010;Köpf et al, 2014). Other aspects to consider are that: (1) no dry period reduces the concentration of antibodies in colostrum, which did not affect growth and development of calves but warranted a sufficient uptake of colostrum (Mayasari et al, 2015); (2) no dry period can affect milk processing quality via affecting casein composition both in late and early lactation ; and (3) reported effects of dry period length on SCC and mastitis incidence are ambiguous, but cows with a high SCC benefit from a dry period when they can be treated with dry cow antibiotics (Van Hoeij et al, 2016).…”