HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Interpretive Summary Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Olynk, N. J. Articles by Wolf, C. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Olynk, N. J. Articles by Wolf, C. A.

Economic Analysis of Reproductive Management Strategies on US Commercial Dairy Farms

Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824

¹ Corresponding author: olynknic{at}msu.edu

Reproductive management has received increased attention in recent years as new technologies and programs have been developed to aid dairy managers in efficiently breeding cows and heifers. Efficient breeding of cows and heifers has become increasingly difficult as fertility has decreased because of a correlated negative response with milk yield. Dairy farm survey results were used to parameterize the economic analyses of reproductive management programs. Reproductive management program costs and the levels of reproductive performance achieved with such programs varied significantly among farms and were especially sensitive to on-farm labor costs. For example, visual heat detection requires more hours of labor per cow than use of an estrus synchronization program. Therefore, visual heat detection programs were relatively more sensitive to labor costs than synchronization programs. In addition, past reproductive performance was found to affect the determination of which reproductive program was optimal. Farms that had attained high levels of labor efficiency for visual heat detection in the past had less incentive to adopt a synchronization program than farms with less efficient visual heat detection.

Key Words: reproduction • herd management • economics • synchronization

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. J. Olynk and C. A. Wolf Stochastic economic analysis of dairy cattle artificial insemination reproductive management programs J Dairy Sci, March 1, 2009; 92(3): 1290 - 1299. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]