Oded Nir (Markusfeld), Dairy Herd Health Consultant to Hachaklait & SAE Afikim, Israel
Feeding for efficient milk production leads in modern dairy practice. Efforts to maintain production and fertility at optimal levels under given market, husbandry and feeding conditions, often fail. Yet, financial losses for an “open day” are estimated in various studies to be 2.5 to 5.0 US$. Losses of income that could be attributed to health problems and managemental mistakes affecting fertility and identified in a routine Herd Health Report issued to an Israeli herd of 500 cows for the year 2005 were estimated at US$ 59,129 (Table 1). Given value for one open day was 3.00 US$.
Table 1. Economical evaluation of losses of income that could be attributed to health problems and managemental mistakes for the year 2005 in an Israeli herd.
Should increasing production ultimately lead to lower fertility?
A common complaint in recent years is that it is not possible to maintain both production and fertility at optimal levels. Figure 1, taken from the State of New York (1) is a typical example to such an alibi.
Data from Israel (2) shows that things could be different (Figure 2); higher production had been accompanied by better pregnancy rate. The present presentation describes the Israeli (multifactorial) approach to fertility and health problems, which, in the author's view, made such an achievement possible.
