Birth season affects cow longevity

Abstract

Dairy cow longevity is an important economic trait for producers. In modern dairy farming, longevity of dairy cows is the result of culling decisions, which are determined by several risk factors, including diseases, and reproductive and productive performance. Previous studies have documented that seasonal changes affect health, behavior, and performance of dairy cows throughout their life cycle. Increasing cow comfort by making management adjustments to decrease exposure to high temperatures during the hot months gives farmers the opportunity to decrease culling risk factors and possibly increase cow productive life. In the present study, we obtained the records of primiparous and multiparous Holstein cows from Florida (n = 10,812) and California (n = 8,197) during a 10-yr period (2012–2022). We analyzed the relationship between birth season and longevity (i.e., cows that remained in the herd for 5 or more lactations) in Florida (n = 1,567) and in California (n = 1,669). The number of cows dead, sold, the reasons why they were sold, and their relationship with birth season were also analyzed in the Florida dataset. The hypothesis was that birth in a cool season will increase the length of herd productive life and decrease the number of cows sold or dead during all lactations. The birth seasons were cool (CL; cows born in December, January, February, or March) and hot (HS; cows born in June, July, August, or September). Results showed that in Florida, most cows that remained in the herd for more than 5 lactations (i.e., 14.5% of total cow records) were born during CL compared with cows born during HS (1,129, 72% vs. 438, 28%). The same observations were made in California, where greater longevity (i.e., 5 or more lactations, representing 20.4% of total cow records) was attributed to cows born in CL compared with HS cows (939, 56.3% vs. 730, 43.7%). In Florida, a greater number of HS were sold compared with CL cows (765, 52.6% vs. 689, 47.4%). More HS cows were sold due to breeding, foot and leg, and mastitis issues in Florida. Increased cow death during the first 4 lactations was significantly associated with HS (107, 53.8% vs. 92, 46.2%). Results of this study may help farmers create opportunities to make management adjustments related to birth season, or alter negative seasonal factors (i.e., heat stress) to possibly increase cow longevity in dairy herds.