Reproductive Performance in Dairy Cattle

Discussion statements

1. It is too time-consuming and useless to examine cows individually around one month post partum. eventually, systemic treatment could be applied at the herd level (that is: applied to all cows -- e.g. systematic intra-uterine administration of antibiotics, as performed at drying off for mammary glands).

2. It is non-sense to treat cows in case of reproductive disturbances. cows of low fertility are those that cannot cope with their environment: they thus should be culled. Buying/selling is the best means to reach the (higher) milk production objective with a lower number of cows.

3. reproductive performances are the reflection of the quality of the environment provided to cows. think nutrition before thinking reproduction.

4. the poor development of informatics in veterinary clinics and in herds, and the lack of collaboration and data exchange between vets and other partners of the farmer are the main limiting factors of a global data analysis at the herd level.

5. the only aim of a dairyman is to produce maximum milk (the entire quantity allowed by quota) with the lowest production costs. reproductive performance on its own is of no importance.

6. the increasing proportion of female vets is an opportunity to develop data analysis and herd health services, since these intellectual activities may be more interesting to girls and are easier to manage together with that of a family than clinical activities. […]