Economic evaluation of longevity in organic dairy cows

Horn, Marco; Knaus, Wilhelm; Kirner, Leopold; Steinwidder, Andreas

doi:10.1007/s13165-012-0027-6

Cited by 37 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…After parturition the experiment included two dietary treatments, which differed in concentrate supplementation-one group (Low) received a concentrate supplementation that was 50% lower than the supplementation level supplied to the control group (Con). The concentrate amount in Con was adapted to the common concentrate supplementation rate of organic dairy farms in Austria (Horn et al, 2012). The concentrate supplementation was increased from 2 to 7.5 kg DM and from 1 to 3.7 kg DM during the first 21 days in milk for Con and Low, respectively.…”

Section: Animals Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Close relationship between pre- and post-calving reticuloruminal pH levels in dairy cows

et al. 2015

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a b s t r a c tThe aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of prepartum reticuloruminal pH values on postpartum pH values of lactating cows at two concentrate supplementation levels. An indwelling pH measurement system with a wireless data transmitting unit was given to 9 heifers and 11 cows orally 2 weeks before expected calving. The pH was measured from week 2 prepartum to week 6 postpartum. Prepartum, all animals were fed hay and grass silage only. After parturition the animals were assigned to one of two concentrate supplementation levels (Con and Low). During the first 6 weeks postpartum, 5.6 kg and 2.9 kg dry matter per day of concentrates were fed to cows in groups Con and Low, respectively. Before parturition, no effect of the week on the mean pH was found, but pH values varied considerably between individual animals. During the last week prior parturition, the median, lower and upper quartile values of the mean pH values were 6.47, 6.41 and 6.59 for heifers and 6.29, 6.19 and 6.39 for cows, respectively. Standard deviations of the mean pH values for heifers and cows were 0.15 and 0.12, respectively. After parturition, no diet effect on the mean pH and maximum pH values was found. The minimum pH differed between Con and Low, but the absolute levels were almost equal (6.02 and 6.04, resp.). A strong correlation (r 4 0.8; P o 0.01) between the mean pH value before parturition (pH week À 1 ) and pH values after parturition was found. Animals having lower pH levels before parturition continued to have lower mean pH and minimum pH values during weeks 1 to 6 postpartum. Furthermore, these animals had stronger short term fluctuations of H 3 O þ concentrations and a longer time span with pH values below 6.2. The results support the theory of the existence of cow-specific baselines concerning rumen pH, pointing to individual differences in the rumen environment, fermentation and metabolism and emphasising the importance of further research on this topic.

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Section: Animals Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Close relationship between pre- and post-calving reticuloruminal pH levels in dairy cows

et al. 2015

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“…Reductions in robustness are especially negative for organic farms, as the control of diseases is more difficult to manage due to the restrictions on the use of veterinary drugs. From an economic point of view, it is interesting to mention that Horn et al [74] proved that extended longevity allowed for the maintenance of the profitability of farms, despite the lower average milk yield found per cow per day. As discussed above, such maintenance of the profitability despite a lower productivity probably came from the reduced use of concentrates and reduced exposure to market fluctuations, feedstuff costs included.…”

Section: Other Strategies: Longevity and Robustnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other side, organic farms tend to rear more robust animals or, at least, tend to have more milk production cycles (longer average productive lifetime). Further, Horn et al [74] found that the profitability of organic dairy farming is influenced mainly by lactation performance and longevity. Therefore, the relative importance of herd lifespan, health, and reproductive traits should be strengthened.…”

Section: Other Strategies: Longevity and Robustnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Feed: A Bottleneck for the Development of the Livestock Sector and Its Transition to Sustainability?

Escribano¹

2018

Sustainability

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There is a current need to increase global livestock production in line with consumers' preferences for more sustainable and 'natural' products. Organic farming is considered among the potential production systems and market strategies that could be employed to cope with this change. Animal nutrition is key, as it greatly influences feed efficiency, animal health, and sustainability. Under situations where animal health care is technically more challenging, due to limitations in the use of veterinary drugs (such as in organic farming), the importance of feed is even higher. However, the there is a lack of commercially available permitted feed ingredients and the range of feed additives on the market is limited. This is partially due to the fact that organic regulations are mainly followed to ensure that pure organic methods are used, instead of trying attain the core goal of complying with organic principles and contributing to the sustainability of the sector. For example, improved animal health and animal welfare through the use of non-organically certified feed additives is needed. This lack of availability, along with difficulties for the feed industry to become organic, affects the development of sustainability in the livestock sector (which should be the final objective of organic farming) in both already organic livestock/feed companies and those still producing under the conventional system. In this context, the presented work may be interesting to producers and policymakers, as it is aimed at providing a critical view of the relationship between the market and the needs of the livestock sector, the sustainability challenge, and organic farming regulations as applied to animal nutrition.

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“…For example, Yan et al (1997) found a significant increase in metabolizable energy (ME) requirements for maintenance with increasing grass silage proportions and decreasing concentrate proportions in the diet, but no effect on the efficiency of the utilization of ME for milk production (k l ), whereas others showed a clear dependence of k l on metabolizability (Strathe et al, 2011). Longevity strategies are often combined with concomitant attempts to lower dietary concentrate proportion, as reduced milk revenues can be compensated with lower expenses for concentrate and replacement animals (Horn et al, 2012). As a consequence, when investigating longevity strategies for milk production, concomitant changes in feeding strategy should also be considered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for increasing digestive and metabolic efficiency of energy utilization with age of dairy cattle as determined in two feeding regimes

Grandl

Zeitz

Clauss

et al. 2018

Animal

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The changes taking place with age in energy turnover of dairy cattle are largely unknown. It is unclear whether the efficiency of energy utilization in digestion (characterized by faecal and methane energy losses) and in metabolism (characterized by urine and heat energy losses) is altered with age. In the present study, energy balance data were obtained from 30 lactating Brown Swiss dairy cows aged between 2 and 10 years, and 12 heifers from 0.5 to 2 years of age. In order to evaluate a possible dependence of age effects on diet type, half of the cattle each originated from two herds kept at the same farm, which were fed either on a forage-only diet or on the same forage diet but complemented with 5 kg/day of concentrate since their first calving. During 2 days, the gaseous exchange of the animals was quantified in open-circuit respiration chambers, followed by an 8-day period of feed, faeces, urine and milk collection. Daily amounts and energy contents were used to calculate complete energy balances. Age and feeding regime effects were analysed by parametric regression analysis where BW, milk yield and hay proportion in forage as consumed were considered as covariates. Relative to intake of gross energy, the availability of metabolizable energy (ME) increased with age. This was not the result of an increasing energy digestibility, but of proportionately lower energy losses with methane (following a curvilinear relationship with the greatest losses in middle-aged cows) and urine (continuously declining). The efficiency of utilization of ME for milk production (k l) increased with age. Potential reasons include an increase in the propionate-to-acetate ratio in the rumen because of a shift away from fibre degradation and methane formation as well as lower urine energy losses. The greater k l allowed older cows to accrete more energy reserves in the body. As expected, offering concentrate enhanced digestibility, metabolizability and metabolic utilization of energy. Age and feeding regime did not interact significantly. In conclusion, older cows seem to have digestive and metabolic strategies to use dietary energy to a certain degree more efficiently than younger cows.

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Economic evaluation of longevity in organic dairy cows

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

Close relationship between pre- and post-calving reticuloruminal pH levels in dairy cows

Close relationship between pre- and post-calving reticuloruminal pH levels in dairy cows

Organic Feed: A Bottleneck for the Development of the Livestock Sector and Its Transition to Sustainability?

Evidence for increasing digestive and metabolic efficiency of energy utilization with age of dairy cattle as determined in two feeding regimes

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