Effect of nutrition and mating management on calving patterns

A.A. McGowan

Dairy Research Institute, Ellinbank, Victoria, Australia

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. 1981, 41: 34-38

A high calving percentage and a controlled calving pattern essential to optimise economic returns from a dairy or beef enterprise. High stocking rates have been shown to have a major influence on production but there is insufficient evidence on the effects of stocking rate or nutrition on calving performance.

It is known that nutrition, through its effect on post-partum anoestrous, start of mating, oestrous detection, conception rate, duration of mating, and artificial induction of calving, will affect calving pattern, but the quantitative effects of each of these and the interactions between them, cannot readily be assessed by the farmer or his advisor.

A simulation model has been developed to do this. The results indicate that poor oestrous detection and poor nutrition are the most likely causes of poor calving patterns but that these factors can be largely offset by extended duration of mating and artificial induction of calving.

Keywords: NZSAPAB;

Last Updated 12-09-1998