Reproductive management in dairy cows - the future

Abstract

BackgroundDrivers of change in dairy herd health management include the significant increase in herd/farm size, quota removal (within Europe) and the increase in technologies to aid in dairy cow reproductive management.Main bodyThere are a number of key areas for improving fertility management these include: i) handling of substantial volumes of data, ii) genetic selection (including improved phenotypes for use in breeding programmes), iii) nutritional management (including transition cow management), iv) control of infectious disease, v) reproductive management (and automated systems to improve reproductive management), vi) ovulation / oestrous synchronisation, vii) rapid diagnostics of reproductive status, and viii) management of male fertility. This review covers the current status and future outlook of many of these key factors that contribute to dairy cow herd health and reproductive performance.ConclusionsIn addition to improvements in genetic trends for fertility, numerous other future developments are likely in the near future. These include: i) development of new and novel fertility phenotypes that may be measurable in milk; ii) specific fertility genomic markers; iii) earlier and rapid pregnancy detection; iv) increased use of activity monitors; v) improved breeding protocols; vi) automated inline sensors for relevant phenotypes that become more affordable for farmers; and vii) capturing and mining multiple sources of “Big Data” available to dairy farmers. These should facilitate improved performance, health and fertility of dairy cows in the future.

Prediction of metabolic clusters in early-lactation dairy cows using models based on milk biomarkers

“…Further efforts are made within the GplusE project for industry-wide application of the metabolic clustering technique. External validation of the balanced cows can lead to establishment of a novel phenotypic trait for genetic selection as suggested by Egger-Danner et al (2015) and Crowe et al (2018). External validation of the imbalanced cows can help identify cows for specific management strategies, such as elective propylenic glycol treatment versus group treatment, as proposed by others (Lomander et al, 2012;Jenkins et al, 2015).…”

Symposium review: The choice and collection of new relevant phenotypes for fertility selection

“…Many new phenotypes have been proposed to better express the underlying biology of reproduction in cattle with minimal influence of producer management decisions. As well, with emerging technologies and data sources, there are opportunities to both better characterize and improve the accuracy of current traits, and potentially collect novel phenotypes at a national level (Crowe et al, 2018;Fleming et al, 2018). There is a plethora of novel phenotypes to describe many different aspects of female reproduction in dairy cows, and here we discuss some of those most attainable for implementation.…”

Strategies for increasing fertility in high productivity dairy herds

“…Using this method, the diagnosis of pregnancy is usually determined from day 28 of pregnancy, and 30 days later it is usually performed to evaluate embryonic loss. Another useful strategy is to resynchronize cows after unsuccessful insemination (Crowe et al, 2018).…”

“…Milk production per cow has steadily increased through the combined improvement of management, nutrition, and genetic selection actions. However, farms are becoming larger and with more productive cows, increasing the challenge of maintaining reproductive efficiency in increasingly adverse situations due to metabolic adaptations for this purpose (Crowe et al, 2018). Thus, it is justified to maintain the most demanding reproduction at satisfactory levels, considering that high producing cows have a higher incidence of infertility or subfertility (Walsh et al, 2011).…”