Hip Height Measurements, Production and Reproduction in Adult Dairy Cows in Argentina Grazing Systems
Keywords:
hip height measurements, production, reproduction, dairy cows, grazing systemsAbstract
This study was aimed to characterize the measurement of the hip height as an indicator of body size, production and reproduction in dairy cows, kept in grazing systems in the Argentine humid Pampean region. Records corresponding to 210 third lactation Holstein cows, belonging to two dairies located on the area of Rosario city, Argentina, obtained in the period 2012-2013 were evaluated. The following variables were studied: milk yield (my), calving to conception interval (cci), number of services per conception (nsc) and hip height (hh). The results showed that despite the significant differences (p≤0. 05) in average height, which varied between 138 and 149 cm, animals did not differ significantly in any of the productive and reproductive variables. The results showed that adult cows coexist with differences at the body structure level that would allow identifying different biotypes. The studied biotypes showed no relation with production and reproduction levels. A relation between production and reproduction was found. In this context, cows with less height would be the most appropriate for  milk production grazing systems in Argentine Pampas.
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