Calving animals at less than two years of age does not reduce reproductive performance or productivity and, therefore, it could increase herd profit through reduced heifer rearing costs.
To use AI more successfully producers must breed, feed and house their cattle ‘appropriately’ to avoid clinical stress.
As the incidence of uterine disease in UK herds continue to rise, fingers point at E coli – the most commonly isolated uterine pathogen, which often precedes infection with other organisms.
Elevating progesterone levels in beef heifers, by inserting a PRID device shortly after insemination, has no effect on embryo survival rates on day five or day seven and it can actually increase embryo survival rate and embryo length at day 13 and day 16, according to a study led by Fiona Carter at University College, Dublin.
Feeding fatty acids enhances reproductive performance, although some sources appear to be more beneficial than others. And when looking at fatty acids (FAs) and different fat supplements it is important to realise that different families of FAs impact on the cow’s reproductive processes via different pathways.
Extending dairy cow lactations could not only boost profitability, but it could also offer improved levels of health and welfare for European herds.
There’s no definitive answer to what the influence of biofuel production will be on concentrate animal feeding in the US - it’s a complex question and there’s a whole matrix of ‘players’ to consider.
Co-products from the biofuel industry have the potential to be important feed sources for the pig and poultry industries.
“In five or 10 years, grain will not be something that we feed to ruminants.”
There are a whole range of strategies that will help to reduce methane emissions from livestock and these provide scientists and livestock farmers with both a challenge and an opportunity
