High body weight gain and reduced bovine mammary growth: physiological basis and implications for milk yield potential

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Available evidence concerning the relationship between growth rate, mammary growth and milk yield in heifers leads to these conclusions: 1) Increased growth rate due to high feeding level before puberty onset can lead to reduced pubertal mammary growth and reduced milk yield potential. 2) Increased growth rate due to high feeding level after puberty and during pregnancy have no effect on mammary growth and milk yield. 3) Higher body weight gain due to higher genetic potential for growth is positively related to milk yield. The negative effect of high feeding level before puberty occurs in all breeds, but the level of feeding causing reduced yield varies. Variation in responses between experiments suggests that feeding regimes that support high growth rates without negative effect on yield can be developed. A breakthrough most likely will originate from increased knowledge of the physiological relationship between nutrition and mammary development. Our investigations suggest that blood growth hormone (GH) is important for mammary development, and that the negative effect of high feeding level on mammary development may be due to reduced blood GH. GH, however, does not bind to mammary tissue. Experiments with exogenous GH suggest that GH acts on mammary tissue via IGF-I, but IGF-I is increased by high feeding level - not decreased as GH. This paradoxical relationship cannot be explained by changes in circulating IGF binding proteins. However, the sensitivity of mammary tissue to IGF-I is reduced by high feeding level, probably due to the action of locally produced binding proteins and/or growth factors.