The growth retardation effect in early heifers ontogenesis on dairy cows productivity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31548/animal2020.02.028Keywords:
Ukrainian Black-and-White milk breed, daily average weight gain, live weight, milk yield, productive lifetime.Abstract
The objective of the study is to determine, whether the growth retardations of replacement cows are admissible, and in which periods of culture they most significantly affect the further productivity of the cows. The subject of the analysis was the number of animals who at the age of 15 months had the live weight no less than 300 kg (which complied with the breed standard or was inferior to the requirements for 10 % maximum). The animals were divided into 5 groups. The first group included the animals with growth retardation before the age of 3 months. The second one – at the age of 3-6 months; the third one – 6-9 months and the fourth one – 9-12 months. The fifth one was the control group, without growth retardation. The growth retardation referred to the live weight reduction at the end of the period in comparison with its beginning or the average daily weight gain less than 500 g. The authors measured the live weight, first lactation productivity and the lifetime productivity of the animals. It has been established that the growth retardation of the heifers before the age of 3 months negatively affected the growth rate in the following three-month period. They can completely compensate the growth retardation only at the age of 18 months. The other group animals compensated the live weight retardation in comparison with the control group by the age of 15 months. The firstlings which had the growth retardation at the age of 0-3 and 3-6 months, has the highest milk productivity. The same trend was observed in milk fat and protein output and the age of the first calving. However, in the growth retardation group the livability of firstlings, the number of lactations and the productive live was worse. The lifelong milk yield in the growth retardation group was 15-37 % lower than in the control group. Growth retardation at the age of 6-9 months negatively affected the higher lactation productivity. The highest daily milk yield in this group of cows was lower in the control group by 14 % (p < 0.05). Therefore, growth retardation had no negative effect on the milk yield of the firstlings, but resulted in lower survival of the animals, shortened the productive life and lifetime yield. The later the growths retardation occurs, the sooner the heifers can compensate it and the lower is its effect on the lifetime productivity of the cows. In view of the reduction of lifetime productivity, it is purposeful to draft out the animals with the growth retardation.
References
Maligonov, A. A. (1968). Selected Works. Moscow: Kolos. 392. (in Russian)
Chirvinskij, N. P. (1949). Changes in farm animals under the influence of intensive and insufficient feeding at a young age. Selected Works. Moscow: Rossel'khozizdat. 1. 47-49. (in Russian)
Campanile, G., Baruselli, P. S., Vecchio, D., Prandi, A., Neglia, G., Carvalho, N. A. T., D'Occhio, M. J. (2010). Growth, metabolic status and ovarian function in buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) heifers fed a low energy or high energy diet. Animal reproduction science. 122(1-2). 74-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2010.07.005
Nor, N. M., Steeneveld, W., Mourits, M. C. M., Hogeveen, H. (2015). The optimal number of heifer calves to be reared as dairy replacements. Journal of dairy science. 98(2). 861-871. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2014-8329
Owens, C. E. (2017). Transcriptomic and metagenomic impacts of dietary energy of milk replacer in pre-weaned Holstein heifers PhD Thesis. Virginia Tech. 133.
Yung, M. C., VandeHaar, M. J., Fogwell, R. L., Sharma, B. K. (1996). Effect of energy balance and somatotropin on insulin-like growth factor I in serum and on weight and progesterone of corpus luteum in heifers. Journal of animal science. 74(9). 2239-2244. https://doi.org/10.2527/1996.7492239x
Zhang, S., Albornoz, R. I., Aschenbach, J. R., Barreda, D. R., Penner, G. B. (2013). Short-term feed restriction impairs the absorptive function of the reticulo-rumen and total tract barrier function in beef cattle. Journal of Animal Science. 91(4). 1685-1695. (1). https://doi.org/10.2527/jas.2012-5669
Zhang, S., Aschenbach, J. R., Barreda, D. R., Penner, G. B. (2013). Recovery of absorptive function of the reticulo-rumen and total tract barrier function in beef cattle after short-term feed restriction. Journal of animal science, 91(4). 1696-1706. (2). https://doi.org/10.2527/jas.2012-5774
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
Relationship between right holders and users shall be governed by the terms of the license Creative Commons Attribution – non-commercial – Distribution On Same Conditions 4.0 international (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0):https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.uk
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
