Lactation cycles in cows

Lactation cycles in cows

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
First-lactation animals typically make 15% less milk than second-lactation animals. Therefore, it's important to manage and monitor heifer inventories closely with the goal of balancing your heifer and adult cow population. Having the right number of heifers with genetics that achieve your herd goals will allow you to minimize replacement costs while avoiding milk production gaps. Mike Lormore, DVM, MS, MBA on lactation. "When an animal begins to lactate, initially she will go up in production for about 60 days, then her production starts to decline. In animals that are lactating for the first time, they decline about 1 pound of milk every eight days and older animals decline 1 pound of milk about every six days. While we would love to have a way to keep animals lactating at a constant level over an extended period of time, realistically our animals will lactate for about 10 to 14 months before their production gets low enough to the point that we really do need them to terminate that lactation and go through a dry period before they start the next lactation."
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