Effects of a Herd Health Program on Reproductive Performance of Dairy Cows

Abstract One hundred forty-four dairy cows of five breeds with a total of 184 parturitions were assigned randomly by breed and parity to a reproductive herd health program and control group for 2 yr. Animals of herd health program averaged 1.85, 1.73, 73.1, and 99.24 for number of inseminations, inseminations per conception, days to first insemination, and days open compared to 2.59, 2.37, 86.82, and 140.07 for control animals. Controls averaged 255kg of solids-corrected milk more per lactation on a standardized basis than cows in the herd health program. For experimental day, animals of herd health program produced 20.59 and 20.63kg of mature equivalent and solids-corrected milk compared to 20.60 and 20.37kg for controls. Total yearly reproductive veterinary costs per cow for each group were $16.94 and $15.34 for herd health and controls. For economical aspects of the two programs, the reproductive herd health group returned $.16 more per cow per experimental day than controls.