Reproductive status of cows in Dairy Herd Improvement programs and bred using artificial insemination (2011)

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TABLE 1. 2011 REPRODUCTIVE TRAIT AVERAGES and standard errors.
TABLE 2. Average numbers of BREEDINGS PER CONCEPTION (2003–11).
TABLE 3. Average DAYS FROM CALVING TO FIRST BREEDING (2003–11).
TABLE 4. Average DAYS FROM CALVING TO LAST BREEDING (2003–11).
TABLE 5. Average DAYS FROM FIRST TO LAST BREEDING (2003–11).
TABLE 6. Average CONCEPTION RATES FOR FIRST BREEDINGS (2003–11).
TABLE 7. Average CONCEPTION RATES FOR ALL BREEDINGS (2003–11).
TABLE 8. Average CALVING INTERVALS (2003–10).
TABLE 9. Numbers of RECORDS (2003–10): A) AYRSHIRE, B) BROWN SWISS, C) GUERNSEY, D) HOLSTEIN, E) JERSEY), F) MILKING SHORTHORN, and G) RED & WHITE.
BACKGROUND

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TABLE 1. 2011¹ REPRODUCTIVE TRAIT AVERAGES and standard errors by breed.

Trait	Ayrshire	Brown Swiss	Guernsey	Holstein	Jersey	Milking Shorthorn	Red & White
Breedings per conception	2.0 ± 0.02	2.4 ± 0.02	2.4 ± 0.03	2.5 ± 0.00	2.2 ± 0.00	1.9 ± 0.04	2.1± 0.03
Days from calving to first breeding	95 ± 0.8	89 ± 0.4	92 ± 0.8	80 ± 0.0	77 ± 0.1	99 ± 1.6	85 ± 0.8
Days from calving to last breeding	134 ± 1.4	142 ± 1.1	141 ± 1.8	129 ± 0.1	113 ± 0.2	131 ± 2.5	125 ± 1.9
Days from first to last breeding	47 ± 1.1	66 ± 0.9	61 ± 1.4	60 ± 0.1	45 ± 0.2	37 ± 1.8	47 ± 1.5
Conception rate for first breedings	0.37 ± 0.008	0.29 ± 0.005	0.28 ± 0.008	0.32 ± 0.000	0.41 ± 0.001	0.38 ± 0.016	0.34 ± 0.012
Conception rate for all breedings	0.36 ± 0.006	0.27 ± 0.003	0.26 ± 0.005	0.30 ± 0.000	0.37 ± 0.001	0.39 ± 0.011	0.32 ± 0.008
Calving interval	416 ± 1.9	433 ± 1.3	431 ± 2.2	409 ± 0.1	394 ± 0.3	398 ± 3.2	413 ± 2.5

¹Cows first bred in 2011 for all traits except calving interval; for calving interval, cows with first calving for the interval in 2009.

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TABLE 2. Average numbers of BREEDINGS PER CONCEPTION by breed and year of first breeding.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Ayrshire	2.1	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.0	1.9	2.0	2.0	2.0
Brown Swiss	2.6	2.4	2.5	2.6	2.6	2.5	2.4	2.5	2.4
Guernsey	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.4
Holstein	2.4	2.5	2.6	2.6	2.5	2.5	2.5	2.5	2.5
Jersey	2.2	2.2	2.3	2.3	2.3	2.3	2.3	2.2	2.2
Milking Shorthorn	1.7	1.6	1.6	1.7	1.9	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.9
Red & White	2.4	2.2	2.2	2.3	2.4	2.3	2.2	2.2	2.1

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TABLE 3. Average DAYS FROM CALVING TO FIRST BREEDING by breed and breeding year.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Ayrshire	99	97	94	93	94	94	92	93	95
Brown Swiss	98	94	93	92	93	92	90	90	89
Guernsey	99	94	91	89	93	95	89	90	92
Holstein	91	88	87	86	86	83	81	81	80
Jersey	87	86	86	85	83	78	77	77	77
Milking Shorthorn	94	91	96	95	78	83	88	93	99
Red & White	96	97	96	92	86	86	85	84	85

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TABLE 4. Average DAYS FROM CALVING TO LAST BREEDING by breed and year of first breeding.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Ayrshire	146	135	134	133	134	128	131	130	134
Brown Swiss	163	150	157	161	155	152	147	149	142
Guernsey	157	148	153	150	151	149	148	144	141
Holstein	147	143	146	145	141	136	133	133	129
Jersey	130	129	131	130	125	121	117	116	113
Milking Shorthorn	134	121	119	120	100	105	121	122	131
Red & White	156	142	146	143	140	131	132	130	125

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TABLE 5. Average DAYS FROM FIRST TO LAST BREEDING by breed and year of first breeding.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Ayrshire	56	47	50	50	48	40	47	49	47
Brown Swiss	81	72	79	82	79	73	70	73	66
Guernsey	77	72	76	76	76	71	72	72	61
Holstein	67	67	71	71	67	63	62	62	60
Jersey	53	53	57	56	54	52	49	47	45
Milking Shorthorn	33	33	29	34	31	28	42	35	37
Red & White	71	57	61	62	62	56	53	54	47

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TABLE 6. Average CONCEPTION RATES FOR FIRST BREEDINGS by breed and breeding year.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Ayrshire	0.34	0.38	0.38	0.36	0.37	0.39	0.38	0.37	0.37
Brown Swiss	0.28	0.29	0.27	0.27	0.28	0.27	0.29	0.29	0.29
Guernsey	0.28	0.28	0.27	0.26	0.27	0.26	0.25	0.27	0.28
Holstein	0.32	0.33	0.31	0.31	0.32	0.32	0.32	0.32	0.32
Jersey	0.40	0.41	0.40	0.39	0.39	0.39	0.40	0.41	0.41
Milking Shorthorn	0.32	0.41	0.44	0.41	0.35	0.40	0.38	0.43	0.38
Red & White	0.30	0.34	0.33	0.31	0.27	0.31	0.33	0.33	0.34

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TABLE 7. Average CONCEPTION RATES FOR ALL BREEDINGS by breed and year of first breeding.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Ayrshire	0.34	0.36	0.35	0.34	0.36	0.39	0.37	0.36	0.36
Brown Swiss	0.26	0.27	0.25	0.24	0.25	0.26	0.27	0.27	0.27
Guernsey	0.26	0.26	0.25	0.25	0.26	0.24	0.24	0.25	0.26
Holstein	0.31	0.31	0.29	0.29	0.30	0.31	0.31	0.30	0.30
Jersey	0.37	0.37	0.36	0.35	0.35	0.35	0.36	0.37	0.37
Milking Shorthorn	0.36	0.39	0.43	0.38	0.34	0.39	0.36	0.40	0.39
Red & White	0.30	0.31	0.31	0.31	0.27	0.29	0.31	0.33	0.32

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TABLE 8. Average CALVING INTERVALS (days) by breed and year of first calving for the interval.

Breed	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Ayrshire	422	422	419	422	416	418	413	416
Brown Swiss	437	444	444	452	449	448	441	433
Guernsey	434	437	440	438	440	441	436	431
Holstein	426	422	424	424	418	417	412	409
Jersey	411	412	411	412	402	401	397	394
Milking Shorthorn	409	411	407	409	394	410	405	398
Red & White	425	429	432	431	424	423	416	413

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TABLE 9. Numbers of RECORDS used to calculate reproductive statistics by breed, trait, and year.

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Background

Measures of reproductive performance are now available from most Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) herds. Before 2003, comprehensive documentation of reproductive performance was available from only a limited number of U.S. research herds used for testing of experimental technology (for example, facilitation of heat detection, synchronization, timed artificial insemination (AI), and sexed semen). Nieuwhof et al. (1989, Journal of Dairy Science 72:685–692) and Hare et al. (2006, Journal of Dairy Science 89:365–370) reported averages for age at first calving and calving interval for U.S. DHI herds. Norman et al. (2009, Journal of Dairy Science 92:3517–3528) provided a comprehensive summary from 1996 through 2007 of 9 reproductive traits for U.S. Holsteins and Jerseys in DHI herds.

More selection emphasis has been placed on fertility in recent years (Cole et al., 2009, AIPL Research Report NM$4) following a steady decline in a few of the important reproductive traits. For example, days open, which is used to calculate pregnancy rate for genetic evaluations [pregnancy rate = 0.25 (233 − days open)] increased by 39 days for Holsteins from 1960 through 2000; around 75% of that increase in days open can be attributed to genetics (Trend in daughter pregnancy rate for Holsteins or Red & Whites, December 2012).

This report is the 2011 update for the more important reproductive traits. The phenotypic averages provided include both genetic and environmental differences. A few traits have shown improvement since 2003; others deteriorated for a time, but most now show some improvement. The trends for Holsteins reflect the entire U.S. dairy industry well, because they account for most of the cows. Considerable fluctuation over time is evident for many of the other breeds, likely because of their limited numbers.

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Contact: Jan Wright, 301-504-8669, jan.wright@ars.usda.gov

Last Modified: 05/22/2013