The effects of cubicle or strawyard housing and a post-partum injection of prostaglandin on the production and reproductive performance of dairy cows

Abstract

The objective of the experiment was to compare the production and reproductive performance of dairy cows in two environments known to produce large differences in cow behaviour - the cubicle house and straw yard. In addition an injection of prostaglandin analogue was investigated in both environments as it has been previously reported that a post-partum injection.of PGF2 α can improve poor reproductive performance (Knight, 1985).Forty multiparous spring-calving cows were allocated for 12 weeks prepartum and 12 weeks postpartum t0o either a covered strawyard (S) stocked at 0.12 cows/m2 or a cubicle house (C) stocked at 0.17 cows/ m2. One half of each group received an injection PGF2 (P) 21 days post-partum, the other half receiving no injection (N). All cows were offered a complete diet ad libitum (ME 11.9 MJ/kg DM, CP 164g/kg) and results for the animal production and reproduction are presented for the postpartum period, and results for hoof condition presented for the entire winter.