scholarly journals Correlations between Environmental Factors and Milk Production of Holstein Cows

Data ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Mylostyvyi ◽  
Olexandr Chernenko

Global climate change is a challenge for dairy farming. In this regard, identifying reliable correlations between environmental parameters and animals’ physiological responses is a starting point for the mathematical modeling of their effects on the future welfare and milk production of cows. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between environmental parameters and the milk production of cows in hot period. Archival data from the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center were used to study the state of insolation conditions (IC), wind direction (WD), wind strength (WS), air temperature (AT), and relative humidity (RH). The temperature–humidity index (THI) (Kibler, 1964) and temperature–humidity index in the hangar-type cowshed (THICHT) (Mylostyvyi et al., 2019) served as integral indicators of the state of the cowshed’s microclimate. The daily milk yield (DMY), yield of milk fat (MF) and milk protein (MP), and percentage of milk fat (PMF) and protein (PMP) were taken into account by the DairyComp 305 herd management system (VAS, USA). Statistical data processing was performed using the mathematical functions of Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Inc.) and Statistica 10 (StatSoft Inc.). There was a weak correlation between IC and DMY at r = −0.2, between RH and DMY at r = +0.4, and between RH and MF at r = +0.2. Between DMY, MF, MP, and WS made up r = –0.2 to 0.4. Between DMY, MF, MP, and AT made up r = −0.2 to 0.5 (p < 0.05). The effects of weather factors on animal productivity will be the subject of further research.

Author(s):  
Vitalii NITSENKO ◽  
Yuriy I. DANKO

The aim of the study was to develop theoretical, methodological and practical foundations for achieving the economic sustainability of dairy products by enterprises. The structure of the dairy subcomplex in terms of supply chain management is disclosed. This methodological approach made it possible to outline the external environment of the milk production and the dairy industry as a whole. We consider the category «economic sustainability» as the system ability to maintain its working condition in order to achieve the planned results in the presence of various perturbation effects (destabilizing internal and external factors). The starting point was the hypothesis that the economic sustainability of the dairy subcomplex as a whole depends on the economic sustainability of milk production entities (agricultural enterprises and households). Comparing the profitability level that has the potential to provide dynamic economic stability with the average in the dairy industry proves - without active state support the dairy industry in Ukraine is in danger of phasing out. The analysis of economic practices in Ukraine (in particular, data of the State Statistics Service) allowed to formulate the author's vision of the directions of achieving the dairy sub-sector of the state of dynamic economic stability. They include: the development of industrial dairy cattle as opposed to the dominance of small-scale production; changes in pricing policy, as well as the calculation of government subsidies by reformatting approaches to determining the cost of milk production, which will allow to adjust the reproduction system of own livestock and will increase the profitability of the dairy industry; achievement of higher quality of dairy raw materials by means of logistical re-equipment of farms, improvement of personnel qualification, provision of high sanitary standards, improvement of veterinary services; diversification of milk distribution channels in order to reduce the market power of the processing industry enterprises. Key words: milk production, economic sustainability, dairy subcomplex, industrial cattle breeding, dairy cattle breeding.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thuy T. T. Nguyen ◽  
Ben J. Hayes ◽  
Jennie E. Pryce

Climate change will have an impact on dairy cow performance. When heat stressed, animals consume less feed, followed by a decline in milk yield. Previously, we have found that there is genetic variation in this decline. Selection for increased milk production, a major breeding objective, is expected to reduce heat tolerance (HT), as these traits are genetically unfavourably correlated. We aimed to develop a future-scenarios selection tool to assist farmers in making selection decisions, that combines the current national dairy selection index, known as the balanced performance index (BPI), with a proposed HT genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV). Heat-tolerance GEBV was estimated for 12 062 genotyped cows and 10 981 bulls, using an established genomic-prediction equation. Publicly available future daily average temperature and humidity data were used to estimate mean daily temperature–humidity index for each dairy herd. An economic estimate of an individual cow’s heat-tolerance breeding value (BV_HT) was calculated by multiplying head-tolerance GEBVs for milk, fat and protein by their respective economic values that are already used in the BPI. This was scaled for each region by multiplying BV_HT by the heat load, which is the temperature–humidity index units exceeding the threshold per year at a particular location. BV_HT were incorporated into the BPI as: BPI_HT = BPI + BV_HT; where BPI_HT is the ‘augmented BPI’ breeding value including HT. A web-based application was developed enabling farmers to predict the future heat load of a herd and take steps to aim at genetic improvement in future generations by selecting bulls and cows that rank high for the ‘augmented BPI’.


2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 479-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachid Bouraoui ◽  
Mondher Lahmar ◽  
Abdessalem Majdoub ◽  
M'nouer Djemali ◽  
Ronald Belyea

Author(s):  
A. Narmilan ◽  
N. Puvanitha ◽  
A. Sharfan Ahamed ◽  
S. Santhirakumar

Background: Dairy cattle in many tropical, subtropical and semi-arid regions are subject to high ambient temperature and relative humidity for extended periods of time. This compromises the ability of the lactating cows to dissipate heat, resulting in heat stress and decreasing milk production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the temperature-humidity index (THI) on milk production in cows in the study area. Methods: Data on monthly milk production (2017 to 2019) was collected from the Department of Animal Production and Health, Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka and the monthly weather data (2017 to 2019) required for the study was collected from the Meteorological Observatory Station in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. SPSS version 26 was used to analyze interaction between milk production and weather parameters. The monthly THI values were determined for each year.Result: Statistically significant negative relationship (p less than 0.05) was found between milk production and THI in 2017, 2018 and from 2017 to 2019 except 2019 due to the sudden death of cattle in Batticaloa district. Results of all three years indicated that milk production decreases as THI increases. It is concluded that the milk yield of cows is influenced significantly by heat stress during the dry season from April to August between 2017 and 2019, proper management strategies could be helpful to minimize heat stress to attain optimal performance of dairy cows.


Author(s):  
Jayanta Kumar Basak ◽  
Elanchezhian Arulmozhi ◽  
Fawad Khan ◽  
Frank Gyan Okyere ◽  
Jihoon Park ◽  
...  

An experiment was conducted to find out the most influential factors affecting pig’s body temperature (PBT). For this purpose, eight environmental parameters and three growth related factors were considered as variables. Among these factors, seven environmental parameters, including temperature, CO2, temperature-humidity index inside and outside the pig’s barn and relative humidity inside the barn were taken as input variables for artificial neural networks (ANN) and multiple linear regression (MLR) models due to their good correlation (r ³ 0.5) with PBT. The results showed that ANN and MLR models had the lowest R2 values (0.81 and 0.69, respectively) and the highest RMSE (1.17 and 1.48, respectively) when they were run without temperature-humidity index; however, the maximum R2 (0.90 and 0.75, respectively) and minimum RMSE (0.92 and 1.40, respectively) were found without relative humidity. Based on the results, the temperature-humidity index could represent an important indicator in registering early warning signs of PBT status alternations.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1747
Author(s):  
Juan Antonio Jaén-Téllez ◽  
María José Sánchez-Guerrero ◽  
Mercedes Valera ◽  
Pedro González-Redondo

Rabbits often experience stress when they perceive certain stimuli, such as handling. The physiological response of animals to stress and temperament is associated with feeding efficiency, with those with the least capacity to react to stress showing the highest performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of stress due to heat (temperature-humidity index; THI) or handling, assessed using infrared thermography, on the performance parameters of rabbits of a Spanish Common breed. Thirty-nine rabbits were analyzed during a 38-d fattening period at two times of the year: a cold period and a warm period. The rabbits’ stress due to handling was assessed by the temperature difference taken in the inner ear, before and after being handled. The animals were more productive in the cold season. Temperature-humidity index significantly influenced average daily gain (ADG) and daily feed intake (DFI). Rabbits with higher levels of stress showed higher ADG, DFI and feed conversion ratio (FCR) values. The greater the stress due to handling, the less efficient the animals were. FCR increased with higher THI. It was concluded that changes in animal welfare caused by the rabbits’ reactivity to both climatic and individual factors affect animal productivity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 180 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. M. Golder ◽  
P. Celi ◽  
J. Takahashi ◽  
I. J. Lean

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of ruminal mechanical stimulating brushes (RMS brush) on rumen fermentation and plasma oxidative stress and subsequent milk production in early lactation dairy cattle in the Australian spring and summer. Two hundred pasture-fed Holstein, Jersey, and Holstein × Jersey multiparous cows were enrolled into Control (no treatment; n = 103) or RMS brush (n = 97) groups in a randomised controlled trial at 26 ± 15 days before calving. The RMS brush group had three brushes/cow administered orally. Each RMS brush consisted of synthetic polymer bristles held in place with a metal component and was enclosed in a paper capsule that dissolved after insertion. Milk yield (MY), bodyweight, and weather data were recorded daily for the first 30 weeks of lactation. Stomach tube rumen fluid samples and plasma were collected monthly for the first 3 months of lactation from a minimum subset of 14 cows from each group. A total of 182 cows calved successfully and 34 cows were removed during the first 30 weeks of lactation. There was no difference in survival between the groups (hazard ratio = 0.952, confidence interval = 0.481–1.88). Rumen, plasma oxidative stress, and milk production measures were not affected by group or the interaction between group and time, with the exception of a mean increase of 304 µM of biological antioxidant potential in the RMS brush cows. The mean temperature humidity index for the first 30 weeks of lactation was <72; hence, effects on heat stress could not be evaluated. Maximum and minimum temperature and THI over the first 30 weeks of lactation were not correlated with MY and bodyweight for either group on time series cross correlation. Positive correlations occurred for the Controls at lag 0 and negative correlations for both groups at lags of 3 and 4 weeks between MY and relative humidity at 1500 hours. There appeared to be no effect of RMS on mitigation of temperature humidity index within the range studied. There did not appear to be negative impacts of the RMS brushes.


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