Economic opportunities for using sexed semen and semen of beef bulls in dairy herds
| Autor: | Søren Dinesen Østergaard, Jørn Rind Thomasen, Anders Christian Sørensen, Line Hjortø, Jehan Frans Ettema, Morten Kargo |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Male
0301 basic medicine SELECTION Veterinary medicine INSEMINATION Dairy heifer STRATEGIES animal diseases CATTLE Economic shortage Net return Semen Biology dairy herd 03 medical and health sciences Animal science Herd management Genetics Animals genetics Sex Preselection beef semen Insemination Artificial INDEX COWS urogenital system Dairy herds sexed semen 0402 animal and dairy science Reproducibility of Results 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences economics PERFORMANCE 040201 dairy & animal science REPLACEMENT Dairying 030104 developmental biology HEIFERS Herd MERIT Cattle Female Animal Science and Zoology Dairy bull Food Science |
| Zdroj: | Ettema, J F, Thomasen, J R, Hjortø, L, Kargo, M, Ostergaard, S & Sorensen, A C 2017, ' Economic opportunities for using sexed semen and semen of beef bulls in dairy herds ', Journal of Dairy Science, vol. 100, no. 5, pp. 4161-4171 . https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2016-11333 |
| DOI: | 10.3168/jds.2016-11333 |
| Popis: | Dairy farmers can increase the number of dairy heifer calves born in their herd by using sexed semen. They can reduce the number of both dairy bull and heifer calves by using beef semen. Long before sexed semen became commercially available, it was believed that it would provide opportunities for increasing genetic level in both herds and populations. In this study, we studied the potential for increasing the genetic level of a herd by using beef semen in combination with sexed semen. We tested the hypothesis that the potential of increasing the genetic level and the overall net return would depend on herd management. To test this hypothesis, we simulated 7 scenarios using beef semen and sexed semen in 5 herds at different management levels. We combined the results of 2 stochastic simulation models, SimHerd and ADAM. SimHerd simulated the effects of the scenarios and management levels on economic outcomes (i.e., operational return) and on technical outcomes such as the parity distribution of the dams of heifer calves, but it disregarded genetic progress. The ADAM model quantified genetic level by using the dams' parity distributions and the frequency of sexed and beef semen to estimate genetic return per year. We calculated the annual net return per slot as the sum of the operational return and the genetic return, divided by the total number of slots. Net return increased up to €18 per slot when using sexed semen in 75% genetically superior heifers and beef semen in 70% genetically inferior, multiparous cows. The assumed reliability of selection was 0.84. These findings were for a herd with overall high management for reproductive performance, longevity, and calf survival. The same breeding strategy reduced net return by €55 per slot when management levels were average. The main reason for the large reduction in net return was the heifer shortage that arose in this scenario. Our hypothesis that the potential for beef semen to increase genetic level would be herd-specific was supported. None of the scenarios were profitable under Danish circumstances when the value of the increased genetic level was not included. A comparable improvement in genetic level could be realized by selectively selling dairy heifer calves rather than using beef semen. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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