Visited a farm in West Cork where a herd of Holstein Friesian cows presented with an underlying problem of low milk protein relative to previous milk season. Milk proteins previously were at this time of the year between 3.4 and 3.55%. This year they have slipped in the past 8 weeks from 3.5 to 3.2. BCS in the cows was in the acceptable range between 2.5 and 3.0 for the freshly calved cows and 3 to 3.5 in cows which had calved greater than 120 days. The pregnancy rate among cows presented was below 20%, The incidence of embryonic death from cows presented was in excess of 25% and of those cows diagnosed not pregnant, over 70% of same had abnormal uterine environments which would not be conclusive to the establishment of pregnancy. I advised the client to consult his nutritionist to investigate in more detail the underlying stressors giving rise to poor reproductive performance and depressed milk proteins.
Dr.Dan @ www.cows365.com