There is no PRODUCTION without prior REPRODUCTION

 

Poultry farmers know this—“no eggs, no income”.    Swine producers know this as well—“no sows nursing piglets, no pork chops to sell”.     Sheep flocks are pushed to lamb twice in fifteen months.   Beef cow-calf operators know this very painfully at today’s calf values—“no calf, no income”.    Why when it comes to Dairy, has the production industry been so casual about reproduction?

Remember when Monsanto was promoting the eighteen month calving interval, and some of the rBST users were bragging up 1000-day lactations (cows who only calved once in their life)?

Today’s replacement heifer shortage  (in spite of widespread use of “gender selected” semen)  and the record-setting prices that are now double what springing heifers brought as recently as three years ago,  brings me to review all the high technology adaptive concepts that have been promoted to trusting dairymen, in the constant chase for “more milk”.

It really all began with the development of Predicted Transmitting Ability, the ranking of sires primarily on first-lactation milk volume.   Heifers who “peaked” the highest gave their sires the magic +1000 PD Milk rating, even if it took them 500 days to calve back—only the first 305 days’ milk multiplied by “ME” (Mature Equivalent) factors counted “genetically”.     In each generation bred this way, average conception rates fell, average calving intervals fell, percentage of stillborn calves increased, and incidence of post-calving metabolic disease rose.     The Genetics industry blamed your bad luck on nutritionists and veterinarians, instead of taking responsibility for the accumulating inbreeding effects from “single trait” genetic selection they promote.

Breeders who continued to base their breeding programs on strong maternal lines with strong natural fertility and competitive longevity could not compete with a genetic ranking system that was biased in favor of sire stacks of +1000  PD Milk bulls.    Today, under Genomic theories, cow values cannot produce enough “data” to alter the sire-centric pedigree-bound calculations.

How  do  we  reclaim  profitable  levels  of  fertility  in  our  dairy  herds?

The industry error is to act as if “selection” and “mating” are one and the same.   Cull rates, and  75 years of herd observations in the “aAa” breeding guide, prove these two functions different.     By ignoring this, basing all selection on intragenerational sire comparison, the half of your herd genetic profile descended from your cow lines  is being mismanaged.    Your best cows are not being given the chance to produce the best possible offspring.    Your worst cow is treated as if she will breed exactly the same as your best cows.    New cull cows are being reproduced.

Milk yield is half sire genetics, half cow physical capability  and “aAa” focuses on the physique.