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Effect of dietary protein content on estrous behavior of dairy cows during early and mid lactation

R. A. Law^*,1, F. J. Young^*, D. C. Patterson^*, D. J. Kilpatrick, A. R. G. Wylie and C. S. Mayne^*

^* Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Agriculture Branch, Hillsborough, County Down, Northern Ireland BT26 6DR
Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Newforge Lane, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT9 5PX

¹ Corresponding author: Ryan.Law{at}afbini.gov.uk

One of the main contributing factors to the decline in fertility in contemporary dairy farming is the inability to detect cows in estrus. In the current study, 90 Holstein dairy cows [45 primiparous and 45 multiparous (mean parity of 3.1)] were allocated to 1 of 3 treatments at calving; 173, 144, or 114 g of crude protein/kg of dry matter. Estrous behavior was recorded for one 30-min period every 12 h from calving until all animals reached 140 d postpartum. Behavioral activities were recorded according to a scoring system developed by Van Eerdenburg et al. (1996), with 9 key estrous behavioral activities each allocated a given number of points. If the total score allocated was greater than or equal to 50 points during a single or consecutive observational periods, then the animal was deemed to be in estrus. A total of 238 estrous cycles scored 50 points or above on the Van Eerdenburg et al. (1996) scale in this experiment, with 51.7% of these cycles being characterized as standing immobile on mounting. There were no direct effects of dietary protein content on estrous behavior; however, 3 significant stage of lactation x protein treatment interactions occurred for the behavioral activities (mucous discharge, chin resting, and mounting the head side of another cow), but no consistent trends were apparent from the predicted means. There was a significant influence of parity on the frequency of mounting the head side of another cow and total number of behavior activities displayed per estrous cycle. In both cases multiparous animals displayed fewer behavioral activities than primiparous animals. An increase in the size of the sexually active group (animals in estrus at the same time, up to 5) significantly increased the expression of mounting or attempting to mount another cow, the number of cycles in which standing immobile on being mounted was observed, the total estrous score and the proportion of cyclic animals that were diagnosed as being in estrus. The most frequent behavioral activity displayed was chin resting (89.5% of cycles), and the most reliable behavior was standing immobile on mounting (when expressed 96.4% of cows were in estrus). The most dependable (function of reliability and frequency displayed) sign of estrus was mounting or attempting to mount another cow. This behavior was expressed in 83% of cycles, and when expressed, 89% of animals were in estrus.

Key Words: estrous behavior • crude protein • mounting behavior • estrous detection