Abstract
BackgroundLongevity is an important trait for increasing the profitability of dairy production. Long cow longevity is also essential to reduce the environmental impact of milk production, and to maintain positive consumer attitude. Genetic selection for increased longevity has been effective, but the phenotypic trend of longevity in Swedish dairy cows has not been improved. The objective of this study was to identify herd characteristics and management routines that are associated with the average cow longevity in a herd. To obtain this information, a questionnaire was developed and sent out to 661 Swedish dairy farmers.ResultsThe response rate was 35%. Seventeen of the 62 characteristics investigated had either a univariable association with the outcome (days from birth to culling) at P < 0.15, or were identified as confounders in the causal diagram and were therefore considered as candidates for the multivariable analysis. Multiple imputation was used to fill in the missing data from the questionnaires, and this increased the number of usable observations in the multivariable modeling from 156 to 228. Only a few of the investigated herd characteristics and management routines were associated with average cow longevity. The results demonstrated that using herd health advisory services shortened the average longevity, while using breeding advisory services prolonged the average longevity in the herd. Furthermore, having a greater interest in animal breeding (i.e. genetic selection) decreased the longevity, and calling the veterinarian when discovering an unhealthy cow increased the average longevity. Higher age of the farmer was also associated with longer average herd longevity.ConclusionsThe herd average cow longevity was only associated with some of the farm characteristics and management routines studied. The results demonstrate that the use of advisory services and farmers’ attitudes could be targeted for increasing the herd longevity. Further, the results indicate that other e.g. qualitative factors influencing farmers’ decisions play an important role.
Highlights
Longevity is an important trait for increasing the profitability of dairy production
The herds were categorized into short longevity or long longevity herds based on their average longevity during 2008/2009, 2009/2010, and 2010/2011
The two procedures produced different final models, but regardless of whether the comparison was based on applying each procedure to the complete observations (n = 156) or to a larger subset where the variables in the two models had complete information (n = 182), the model derived from the imputation procedure had Discussion This study aimed to identify herd management practices and characteristics associated with average cow longevity in the herd
Summary
Longevity is an important trait for increasing the profitability of dairy production. The objective of this study was to identify herd characteristics and management routines that are associated with the average cow longevity in a herd. To obtain this information, a questionnaire was developed and sent out to 661 Swedish dairy farmers. With increased longevity the mean production of the herd could be higher because a large proportion of the culling decisions are based on production, and because the proportion of mature cows, which generally produce more milk than young cows, would be increased [2, 3, 7, 10]. In particular, high on-farm mortality, are indicators of poor welfare status and are not compatible with sustainable dairy production [12,13,14]
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