Analysis of culling records and estimation of genetic parameters for longevity and some production traits in Holstein dairy cattle

Abstract

We used data collected on 48,739 cows from 1982 to 2013 from Foka farm in the Isfahan province of Iran to assess the reasons for culling in Iranian Holstein dairy cattle in the context of breeding values of economic traits, and also to study the relationship between longevity and production traits. Estimation of (co)variance components and genetic parameters for studied traits including MY, FY, herd life (HL) and length of production life (LPL) was by AI-REML algorithm in WOMBAT software. The results showed that 27.11% of cows were culled voluntarily under the farmers' command. The number and reasons for culling animals varied considerably over the years. Also, the results showed that involuntarily culled animals were valuable with significantly higher breeding values for MY and FY (P < .0001) than those of voluntarily culled individuals. The estimates of heritability for longevity traits (HL and LPL) were low (0.11 and 0.09), but their genetic correlation with production traits were high and positive (0.63-0.70). Our results suggest that some opportunity may exist for genetic improvements in fat and milk yield in Iranian Holsteins. ARTICLE HISTORY

Analysis of the causes of disposal and the period of economic use of the Red Steppe breed cows

“…При удосконаленні племінних стад та розробленні селекційних програм молочної худоби важливим елементом, який необхідно враховувати, є причини вибуття тварин [19,21].…”

“…Наявність різного ступеня генетичної різноманітності корів за ознаками, які визначають довголіття худоби, вплив бугаїв на формування даних ознак у їх дочок зумовлюють необхідність вивчення та поглиблення знань для запровадження шляхів ведення відбору за ознакою тривалості експлуатації тварин, що, у поєднанні з підбором батьківських пар, сприятиме підвищенню ефективності ведення галузі молочного скотарства [14,20,21].…”

Association Between Linear Traits of Legs and Longevity of Ukrainian Brown Dairy Cows

“…Stanojević et al (2016) reporting that values of heritability coefficients of longevity features varied from 0.066; 0.061 and 0.074 as regards to duration of productive life, lifetime productivity and number of lactation, respectively. Estimates of heritability by features of longevity (herd life and longevity) were low (0.11 and 0.09) according to Ghaderi-Zefrehei et al (2017) and on indicators of survival (0.02-0.05) Krejčová et al (2008). Besides, to obtain data on longevity of cows is necessary to wait for their withdrawal from the herd.…”

Evaluation of female fertility in dairy cattle enterprises – A review

“…Poor reproductive performance affects profitability greatly in a dairy herd as it is one of the reasons for involuntary culling, for example 25% in France (Colleau & Moureaux, 1999), 21% in Iran (Ghaderi-Zefrehei et al, 2017) and18.5% in South Africa (Anonymous, 2017). Involuntary culling also has a negative impact on dairy economics because rearing or purchasing a replacement heifer is far more expensive than the salvage value of culled cows (Lavern, 2017).…”