Associations of Automatically Recorded Body Condition Scores with Measures of Production, Health, and Reproduction

Ramūnas Antanaitis (), Dovilė Malašauskienė, Mindaugas Televičius, Mingaudas Urbutis, Arūnas Rutkauskas, Greta Šertvytytė, Lina Anskienė and Walter Baumgartner
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Ramūnas Antanaitis: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Dovilė Malašauskienė: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Mindaugas Televičius: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Mingaudas Urbutis: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Arūnas Rutkauskas: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Greta Šertvytytė: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Lina Anskienė: Department of Animal Breeding, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str. 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Walter Baumgartner: University Clinic for Ruminants, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinaerplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: In the present study, we hypothesize that an automated body condition scoring system could be an indicator of health and pregnancy success in cows. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the relationship of the automated registered body condition score (BCS) with pregnancy and inline biomarkers such as milk beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), milk lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), milk progesterone (mP4), and milk yield (MY) in dairy cows. Indicators from Herd NavigatorTM were grouped into classes based on their arithmetic means. Values were divided into various classes: MY: ≤31 kg/day (first class—67.3% of cows) and >31 kg/day (second class—32.7%); BHB in milk: ≤0.06 mmol/L (first class—80.7% of cows) and >0.06 mmol/L (second class—16.9%); milk LDH activity: ≤27 µmol/min (first class—69.5% of cows) and >27 µmol/min (second class—30.5%); milk progesterone value: ≤15.5 ng/mL (first class—28.8% of cows) and >15.5 ng/mL (second class—71.2%); and BCS: 2.5–3.0 (first class—21.4% of cows), >3.0–3.5 (second class—50.8%), and >3.5–4.0 (third class—27.8%). According to parity, the cows were divided into two groups: 1 lactation (first group—38.9%) and ≥2 lactations (second group—61.1%). Based on our investigated parameters, BCS is associated with pregnancy success because the BCS (+0.29 score) and mP4 (10.93 ng/mL) of the pregnant cows were higher compared to the group of non-pregnant cows. The MY (−5.26 kg, p < 0.001) and LDH (3.45 µmol/min) values were lower compared to those in the group of non-pregnant cows ( p < 0.01). Statistically significant associations of BCS and mP4 with the number of inseminations were detected. The number of inseminations among cows with the highest BCS of >3.5–4.0 was 42.41% higher than that among cows with the lowest BCS of 2.5–3.0 ( p < 0.001). BCS can also be a health indicator. We found that the LDH content was greatest among cows with the highest BCS of >3.5–4.0; this value was 6.48% higher than that in cows with a BCS of >3.0–3.5 ( p < 0.01). The highest MY was detected in cows with the lowest BCS of 2.5–3.0, which was 29.55% higher than that in cows with the highest BCS of >3.5–4.0 ( p < 0.001). BCS was the highest in the group of cows with mastitis (4.96% higher compared to the group of healthy cows), while the highest statistically significant mean differences in body condition score (9.04%) were estimated between the mastitis and metritis groups of cows ( p < 0.001).

Keywords: precision dairy farming; sensors technology; dairy cows (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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