The economic value of days open in Holstein cows in Japan based on simulated changes in conception rate.

Abstract

Increasing herd-life length and culling parity with increasing conception rate (CR) is necessary to increase lifetime profit from dairy cow production. Economic values of days open (DO) were determined by calculating changes in fertility traits, herd-life length, and milk yield when the simulated CR were changed in increments of 1% from -5% to 5% from the basal levels, which were obtained for Hokkaido and regions other than Hokkaido separately. When CR increased, number of artificial inseminations, DO, and milking length decreased. Furthermore, culling parity, and annual milk yield increased. Herd-life length increased in Hokkaido and decreased in the other regions. The economic values of CR were 1,623.8 to 946.8 yen and of DO were 857.4 to 399.0 yen. Relative economic values of milk yield to days open per genetic standard deviation were higher in the other regions than in Hokkaido where the economic effect of selection for DO was expected to be equal to selection for 305-day milk yield and herd life. If the survival rate of multipara cows in the other regions increases, then the economic value of DO would similarly increase in Hokkaido.