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The feeding system impacts relationships between calving interval and economic results of dairy farms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2017

A.-C. Dalcq ,
Y. Beckers ,
P. Mayeres ,
E. Reding ,
B. Wyzen ,
F. Colinet ,
P. Delhez  and
H. Soyeurt
A.-C. Dalcq*
Affiliation:
Department of AgroBioChem, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Y. Beckers
Affiliation:
Department of AgroBioChem, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium Terra Teaching and Research Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
P. Mayeres
Affiliation:
Walloon Breeding Association, 4 rue des Champs Elysées, 5590 Ciney, Belgium
E. Reding
Affiliation:
Walloon Breeding Association, 4 rue des Champs Elysées, 5590 Ciney, Belgium
B. Wyzen
Affiliation:
Walloon Breeding Association, 4 rue des Champs Elysées, 5590 Ciney, Belgium
F. Colinet
Affiliation:
Department of AgroBioChem, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
P. Delhez
Affiliation:
Department of AgroBioChem, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium Terra Teaching and Research Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium National Fund for Scientific Research (FNR-FNRS), 5 rue d’Egmont, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
H. Soyeurt
Affiliation:
Department of AgroBioChem, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium Terra Teaching and Research Centre, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
*
†E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The calving interval (CI) can potentially impact the economic results of dairy farms. This study highlighted the most profitable CI and innovated by describing this optimum as a function of the feeding system of the farm. On-farm data were used to represent real farm conditions. A total of 1832 accounts of farms recorded from 2007 to 2014 provided economic, technical and feeding information per herd and per year. A multiple correspondence analysis created four feeding groups: extensive, low intensive, intensive and very intensive herds. The gross margin and some of its components were corrected to account for the effect of factors external to the farm, such as the market, biological status, etc. Then the corrected gross margin (cGMc) and its components were modelled by CI parameters in each feeding system by use of GLM. The relationship between cGMc and the proportion of cows with CI<380 days in each feeding group showed that keeping most of the cows in the herd with CI near to 1 year was not profitable for most farms (for the very intensive farms there was no effect of the proportion). Moreover, a low proportion of cows (0% to 20%) with a near-to-1-year CI was not profitable for the extensive and low intensive farms. Extending the proportion of cows with CI beyond 459 days until 635 days (i.e. data limitation) caused no significant economic loss for the extensive and low intensive farms, but was not profitable for the intensive and very intensive farms. Variations of the milk and feeding components explained mainly these significant differences of gross margin. A link between the feeding system and persistency, perceptible in the milk production and CI shown by the herd, could explain the different relationships observed between the extent of CI and the economic results in the feeding groups. This herd-level study tended to show different economic optima of CI as a function of the feeding system. A cow-level study would specify these tendencies to give CI objectives to dairy breeders as a function of their farm characteristics.

Keywords

calving intervaldairyeconomicfeeding
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 12 , Issue 8 , August 2018 , pp. 1662 - 1671
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2017 

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