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Conference abstract, 2010

Economic status of dairy herds ranked by a reproductive performance indicator that accounts for the voluntary waiting period

Emanuelson, Ulf; Löf, Emma; Gustafsson, Hans

Abstract

A good reproductive performance is a central driving force in dairy herds to achieve a profitable production. Monitoring the performance is therefore an important component of herd management and several reproductive performance indicators are in use. In a previous study we compared how well a number of indicators could discriminate between herds with good or bad reproductive management efficiency and between herds with good or bad biological reproductive status. The results showed that a reproductive performance indicator, that accounts for the voluntary waiting period (VWP) of a herd, i.e. the percentage cows pregnant after the herd VWP plus 30 days (PPVWP+30), was to be preferred when both the purpose of the monitoring, ease of use, and preparedness for differences in management and future changes in management was considered. The aim of the current study was to evaluate how PPVWP+30 relates to the technical and economic status of a herd. A dynamic, stochastic simulation model, SimHerd, was used to generate data representing herds with different reproductive status. A total of 18 different scenarios were simulated by altering VWP, reproductive management efficiency and biological reproductive status of the herd. Each scenario was simulated over 10 years with 50 replications. The technical results showed a wide range of the observed values of PPVWP+30. The average PPVWP+30 for herds with good reproductive management efficiency and good biological reproductive status was thus 0.38 while it was 0.10 for herds with poor reproductive management efficiency and poor biological reproductive status. The average calving intervals for these two scenarios were 378 and 415 days, respectively. The overall correlation between the herd net return and PPVWP+30 and average calving interval was 0.75 and 0.66, respectively

Published in

Annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production
2010, pages: 146-146
Book title: Book of Abstracts of the 61st Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production
ISBN: 978-90-8686-152-1
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference


61st Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production