Reasons that Dairy Cows Leave Home

Valid or Not?

Abstract

Approximately 100,000 dairy cows are culled from dairy herds enrolled in milk recording through Ontario Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) each year. The impact that these animals have on herd performance parameters, through their inclusion or exclusion, has been well established. As each cow removal is recorded, the producer is asked to designate one of 13 potential reasons for the cull. Once a year, a summary of all removals, including the removal reason and the days in milk (DIM) at removal, is provided to each producer. Questions have been raised about the utility of the removal report, and the validity of the information that it contains. The objective of this retrospective study was to validate, if possible, the reasons for removal and to suggest alternative strategies to recording and reporting dairy herd removal information.