The implementation of genomic evaluations in Ireland has been very successful and the uptake of the genomically selected (GS) bulls has been encouraging with dairy producers using several bulls as recommended to reduce the risks.
Having calving ease proofs available will help dairy producers to identify bulls that are genetically good (or bad) for calving performance.
There’s no evidence that reducing feed space allowances, when feeding an ad-lib ration, had a detrimental effect on dairy cow performance parameters measured.
It is more effective to treat herds with a high prevalence of digital dermatitis with a 5% rather than a 2% copper sulphate solution in a weekly footbathing regime.
Both soya and linseed oil have the potential to reduce enteric CH4 emissions from grazing dairy cows.
Early luteal concentrations of progesterone were a reasonable predictor of concentrations on day seven and could be used to predict animals at risk of embryo loss.
Recent trials have revealed that fertilisation failure occurred in 53.5% of dairy animals (67.5% of cows, 18.8% of heifers) – a figure that is greater than previous estimates of between 10 and 20%. And the work also revealed that energy status in early lactation significantly affected fertilisation rate.
There is a detrimental effect of a bad calving on cows’ subsequent fertility and milk production. When calving difficulty increases, fertility declines and milk yield in the first stage of lactation also decreases.
It is not genetic merit for milk production or breed that has an adverse impact on embryo quality, but rather that a variety of factors associated with milk production, such as metabolism and nutritional management, induce hostile conditions that prevent optimal embryo development.
Dairy cow fertility is negatively associated with both genetic merit and level of production, and various other factors including season of calving, lactation number and difficult calvings.
