The associations of early-life health and performance with subsequent dairy cow longevity, productivity, and profitability

Abstract

Selecting and raising dairy animals that are more likely to reach their potential is a strategy to increase milk production efficiency and overall profitability. However, indicators are necessary for the early identification of animals that are less likely to perform well, allowing for their early culling and ensuring that resources are allocated to those with the highest potential. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between early-life animal health and performance with longevity, production, and profitability. After data cleaning, the following early-life measures (i.e., predictors) were available for 363 female calves born between June 2014 and November 2015 in eight dairy herds from New Brunswick, Canada (average: 45 calves/farm; SD: 26.1 calves/farm; median: 42 calves/farm; range: 15–95 calves/farm): birth weight, weaning weight, weaning age, weaning average daily gain (weaning ADG), immunoglobulin G (IgG) serum concentration, the occurrence of navel infection, diarrhea, and pneumonia, and if animals received antibiotic treatment between birth and weaning. Their subsequent length of life (LL), length of productive life (LPL), lifetime cumulative energy-corrected milk (ECM), and lifetime cumulative milk value (i.e., response variables) were provided by the Canadian dairy herd improvement agency. Bayesian Additive Regression Tree models were trained for each response variable using 5-fold cross-validation. Models were evaluated using the RMSE and R2. The three most important predictors were identified using permutation, and the relationship between response variables and important predictors was assessed using accumulated local effect plots. The RMSE for LL, LPL, ECM, and milk value were 1.43 years, 1.37 years, 16 314.94 kg, and $CAD 11 525.68, respectively, whereas the R2 values were 0.30, 0.25, 0.29, and 0.29, respectively, indicating a moderate relationship between predictors and response variables. Non-linear relationships were found between the response variables and important predictors. Animals born with low or high birth weights were associated with decreased LL, LPL, ECM, and milk value. The highest LL, LPL, and milk value was observed for calves weaned between 1.9 and 2.0 months old, followed by a decline for calves weaned at older ages. The lowest LL and ECM were associated with weaning ADG of 0.786 kg/day, while 0.787 kg/day was associated with the lowest LPL. Lastly, both ECM and milk value were highest when serum IgG values were 1 659 mg/dL. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing early culling decisions and enhancing the productivity and profitability of dairy farms.