Abstract

Severe negative energy balance (NEB) in the postpartum period of dairy cows may be associated with declining fertility but the mechanisms by which nutrition influences reproduction are complex, poorly understood and confounded by lactation. Hence, both chronic and acute nutritional restriction of beef heifers have been used as models to examine the effects of NEB on ovarian and endocrine responses in the absence of lactation. Plasma IGF-I concentrations gradually decreased until the onset of anoestrus (Stagg et al., 1999) but concentrations may be confounded with stage of the oestrous cycle, especially around ovulation (Mackey et al., 2000). Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of nutritional restriction on periovulatory oestradiol (E2) and IGF-I concentrations.

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