Three Weeks Prior and Three Weeks Postpartum

What I Do To Optimize Fertility In The Next Pregnancy

Abstract

The basic tenet of this paper is that cows that have fewer health disorders have greater milk production and better reproductive performance. Conversely, unhealthy cows do not produce or reproduce well. Controlling metabolic diseases, then, is paramount for good lactational and reproductive performance.⁴³

Also, noting that metabolic diseases in the dairy cow are complexes is important.^20,39,40,45 That is, one condition leads to another. For example, a cow that has milk fever (MF) is four times more likely also to have a retained placenta (RP) and 16.4 times more likely to develop ketosis.⁴⁵

This paper will focus attention on controlling three metabolic diseases. They are fatty liver (FL), hypocalcemia (HC), and rumen acidosis (RA). It is this individual's conviction that they are key diseases hindering reproductive performance in dairy cattle today.