Latest recommendations
Id | Title * | Authors * | Abstract * | Picture * | Thematic fields * | Recommender | Reviewers | Submission date | |
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05 Dec 2019
Effects of feeding treatment on growth rate and performance of primiparous Holstein dairy heifersYannick Le Cozler, Julien Jurquet, Nicolas Bedere https://doi.org/10.1101/760082Optimizing growth rate of dairy heifers through nutrition to maximize reproduction and productionRecommended by Luis TedeschiThe idea of altering the growth rate of replacement heifers to improve reproductive and productive indicators of dairy cattle is not new. In the late 1970s, Gill and Allaire [1] indicated that the first parturition between 22.5 to 23.5 months of age yielded the optimum lifetime performance as long as the heifers had adequate body size [2]. Since 1980s, many studies have been conducted to understand the partitioning of energy between growth and lactation, including the impact of growth rates on the heifer puberty [3] as well as growth and development of the mammary gland [4,5]. The senior author of the recommended study has written previously about this research topic [6]. In the present manuscript, Le Cozler et al. studied the effect of feeding programs to increase the growth rate of late-born heifers to catch up with the growth of those born earlier in the calving season on their reproductive and productive performance. The authors analyzed 217 heifers for three consecutive years, split into three dietary treatments: control (C), accelerated growth rate from birth to 6 months of age (ID1), or accelerated growth rate from birth to 12 months of age (ID2). In this study, the late-born heifers receiving the ID2 treatment were able to partially reach the bodyweight of the early-born heifers at 24 months of age. In part, the incomplete understanding of the prioritization of the use of energy (and other nutrients) for different physiological stages (e.g., maintenance, growth, lactation, and pregnancy) of the dairy animal [7] undercuts the development of more robust feeding strategies to improve the reproductive and productive performance of the animal. In the recommended study by Le Cozler et al., although there was no impact on reproductive performance among groups, heifers in the group ID2 produced less milk (about 400 kg for the whole first lactation) than heifers in the groups C and ID1, apparently suggesting that energy allocation for growth had priority over that needed for lactation. The question then becomes what would have happened with energy partitioning if energy intake was restricted. Studies like this one are important to shed some light on the prioritization of the use of energy and other nutrients in support of growth, pregnancy, and lactation of dairy animals, and how compensatory growth differs between meat versus dairy growing animals, both physiologically and energetically. References [1] Gill, G. S., & Allaire, F. R. (1976). Relationship of Age at First Calving, Days Open, Days Dry, and Herdlife to a Profit function for Dairy Cattle1. Journal of Dairy Science, 59(6), 1131–1139. doi: 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(76)84333-0 | Effects of feeding treatment on growth rate and performance of primiparous Holstein dairy heifers | Yannick Le Cozler, Julien Jurquet, Nicolas Bedere | <p>The objective of this study was to investigate effects of feeding-rearing programs that aim for first calving at 20-27 months (mo) of age on growth, reproduction and production performance of Holstein cows at nulliparous and primiparous stages.... | Cattle production, Reproduction, Ruminant nutrition | Luis Tedeschi | 2019-09-09 09:22:36 | View | ||
06 Sep 2019
![]() Lactation curve model with explicit representation of perturbations as a phenotyping tool for dairy livestock precision farming.Ben Abdelkrim Ahmed, Puillet Laurence, Gomes Pierre, Martin Olivier https://doi.org/10.1101/661249Developing smart fitting algorithms to identify random perturbations in time-series dataRecommended by Luis TedeschiThe ability to adequately characterize the lactation curve of livestock is important not only to ensure proper nutrition of the lactating animal but, among many other benefits, it can assist in diagnosing the incidence of diseases, predicting the quantity of milk production, and comparing animals within the herd for managerial strategies such as culling. Eventually, such smart fitting algorithms can lead to improved genetic selection of more productive animals after genetic-unrelated noises are removed from the data, systematically. References [1] Johansson, I. (1961). Genetic Aspects of Dairy Cattle Breeding. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL. [2] Nelder, J. A. (1966). Inverse polynomials, a useful group of multi-factor response functions. Biometrics. 22 (1):128-141. doi: 10.2307/2528220 | Lactation curve model with explicit representation of perturbations as a phenotyping tool for dairy livestock precision farming. | Ben Abdelkrim Ahmed, Puillet Laurence, Gomes Pierre, Martin Olivier | <p>Background Understanding the effects of environment on livestock provides valuable information on how farm animals express their production potential, and on their welfare. Ruminants are often confronted with perturbations that affect their per... | ![]() | Lactation biology , Mathematical modelling, Precision livestock farming | Luis Tedeschi | 2019-06-07 09:38:26 | View |
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