# Presentation: 668807

## Historical examination of culling of dairy cows from herds in the United States

**H. DUANE NORMAN, E. HARE, and J.R. WRIGHT**
**Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory**
**Agricultural Research Service, USDA**
**Beltsville, MD 20705-2350**
**dnorman@aipl.arsusda.gov**** ******** 301-504-8334**

##    Positive       vs.   negative terms

**Longevity**
**Productive life**
**Survival**
**Stayability**
**Herdlife**

**Culling**
**Disposals**
**Replacement**
**Turnover**

***vs.***

## Selection

** ****Natural control     *****vs.   Human control***

***Bos primigenius***
**(extinct, 1672)**

***Bos taurus***
**(Canadian Holstein true type, 1973)**

## “Do we always do the right thing in selection?”

**2004**

***“******Do we always do the right thing in selection?”***

**ADSA 8****th**** DISCOVER Conference (****)**

***“******We have created a bird that can’t mate naturally!”***

## “Let’s make sure our dairy animals can continue to reproduce naturally!”

**2004**

**ADSA 8****th**** DISCOVER Conference (****)**

***“******Let’s make sure our dairy animals can continue to reproduce naturally!”***

## Cow population vs. production

## ADSA 8th DISCOVER Conference (<number>)

**2004**

**ADSA 8****th**** DISCOVER Conference (****)**

## Production (quantity, quality)

**Producers have largely emphasized milk and component yields and type traits**
**We could have selected for sustained production using more fitness traits (had more of the traits been recorded)**

## Maturity rate vs. survival

***“******H******as rate of maturity changed over  time? How has it affected ***
***survival?”****** ***

## What impacts culling?

**Milk production**
**Reproduction**
**Nutrition**
**Conformation**
**Overall health (e.g. mastitis)**
**Management practices**
**Business economics**

## Factors that impact culling rate

**Management style**
**	****(Hansen *****et al.*****, 1998; Washburn *****et al.*****, 2002; White *****et al.*****, 2002)**

**Herd expansion**
**	****(Faust *****et al.*****, 2001)**

**bST**

**Culling decision software**
**	****(Lehenbauer and Oltjen, 1998; Groenendaal *****et al.*****, 2004; de Vries, 2004)**

**Replacement cost**

## Low culling rates

**Expanding herds**** ****(Weigel *****et al.*****, 2003)**
**Type traits**** ****(Caraviello *****et al.*****, 2003, 2004)**
**Bulk milk SCC**** ****(Barkema *****et al.*****, 1998)**
**SCS**** ****(Samore *****et al.*****, 2003)**
**Crossbreeding**** ****(Weigel and Barlass, 2003)**
**Theoretical analysis**** ****(Hill, 1980)**
**Economic evaluation**** ****(Korver and Remkena, 1979)**

## Longevity definitions

**True longevity =**
**	****how long cows actually stay in the herd**

**Functional longevity = **
**	****how long cows stay in the herd after an adjustment is enacted for milk yield, and perhaps other traits**

## Longevity periods

**Two phases:**
**Productive**
**Nonproductive**
**Nonproductive = Birth to first calving**
**Productive = First calving to disposal**

## Productive life

**Culling dates needed for all animals**
**Genetic evaluation**
**First US national evaluation in 1994**
**First international Holstein bull rankings for longevity in November 2004**
**Indirect response from correlated traits**

## Days open phenotypic trend

**1**

**2**

**3**

**4**

**5**

**Lactation**

***Holstein***

## Economic value of longevity

**Fewer replacement heifers needed to maintain herd size**
**Higher yield near maturity**
**Replacement heifers are better genetically**
**Higher proportion of cows in more profitable lactations**

## Health disorders

**Big impact on voluntary culling**
**Reproductive and udder problems most likely contributors**
**Risk factors (dystocia, displaced abomasum, mastitis)**

## Reliable health information?

## Objectives

**Examine survival rates over time**
**Document how long cows remain in the herd**
**Examine when in the lactation cows are culled**
**Examine why cows are culled**
**Assess the impact of culling**

## Data edits

**Herds participating in DHI testing for 1 yr prior to first calving and remaining on test throughout the cow’s lactations**
**Cows first calving 1980 to 1994 and remaining in same herd**
**Cows culled for dairy purposes excluded**
**No missing lactations (required 270–650 d between lactations)**

## Opportunity group

**Subgroups created based on opportunity of each cow to calve at each lactation**

**Cow’s herd must remain on test for an increment of 450 d per lactation after start of first lactation**
** ****	****e.g.,****	****450 d for opportunity first group,**
**	****	****900 d for opportunity second group,**
**	****	****1350 d for opportunity third group, etc.**

## Cows eligible for opportunity groups

**	****	****	****       ****Brown**
**Parity****   ****Ayrshire     Swiss     Guernsey     Holstein        Jersey**
**   ****1****        71,952    120,158    173,260    12,773,403     654,024**
**   ****2****        63,931    106,273    158,650    11,319,316     570,973 **
**   ****3****        56,576      93,592    137,555      9,971,550     494,967**
**   ****4****        49,736      81,815    143,649      8,738,975     429,201**
**   ****5****        43,684      71,802    129,092      7,602,286     372,088**
**   ****6**** **** ****      38,487      62,759    115,606      6,576,598     322,992 **
**   ****7****        33,596      54,798    102,869      5,693,402     279,335**
**   ****8****        29,172      47,251      91,234      4,883,776     239,510**

## Survival rate

**Defined as fraction of cows that had the opportunity to calve again that did**
**Survival to parity 1 assumed to be 100% as no information was available for heifers****	**

## Survival to parity 2	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****71.7        66.9        67.1         77.3        74.7**
**1984 ****       69.8        65.0        66.4         74.6        73.6**
**1988 ****       70.1        66.2        65.5         72.1        73.8**
**1992 ****       69.5        63.6        60.8         72.4        74.5**
**1996 ****       71.7        66.9        63.6         72.1        75.2**
**2000  ****      71.8        68.8        66.3         74.1        76.2**

## Survival to parity 3	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****50.3        47.4        44.3         56.6        56.5**
**1984 ****       49.2        46.9        44.1         52.8        54.5**
**1988 ****       47.8        47.1        42.0         49.9        55.3**
**1992 ****       47.7        45.2        37.0         49.2        55.4**
**1996 ****       50.7        46.1        39.3         47.6        55.6**
**1999  ****      50.8        47.3        41.8         49.0        56.7**

## Survival to parity 4	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980        ****35.3        33.3        28.0         38.7        40.9**
**1984 ****       33.3        33.5        27.8         35.4        39.5**
**1988 ****       30.3        33.0        24.9         31.7        39.1**
**1992 ****       31.1        32.0        21.3         30.2        39.0**
**1996 ****       33.5        30.6        22.0         28.4        39.0**
**1998  ****      34.8        31.6        21.8         28.4        38.1**

## Survival to parity 7	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****8.7           8.4          5.0           7.5        11.4**
**1984 ****       7.3           8.2          4.1           6.1          9.8**
**1988 ****       6.4           7.6          3.4           4.4          8.7**
**1992 ****       6.7           6.0          2.6           3.5          7.7**
**1995 ****       5.3           5.4          2.5           3.2          7.5**

## Survival rates (1966–83)

**Nieuwhof *****et al., *****1989**

## Survival rates (1980-94)

## Survival rates- Holstein (1980-94)

## Registered vs. grade survival

**Nieuwhof *****et al., *****1989**

## Herd composition by lactation

**Nieuwhof *****et al., *****1989**

## Herd composition by lactation

## Holstein herd composition by parity

**1966–76**

**Nieuwhof *****et al*****., 1989**

## Mean number of parities

**Additional measure of survival**
**Sum of mean survival rates for parities 1 through 8 transformed to an overall indicator of number of parities (calvings)**

## Mean parities through parity 8

**Nieuwhof *****et al., *****1989**

## Mean number of parities 

**                            ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980****        ****3.08         2.96         2.73          3.22        3.36        **
**1982****        3.05         2.97         2.67          3.13        3.31**
**1984****        2.98         2.93         2.69          3.05        3.26**
**1986**** ****       3.00         2.85         2.61          2.96        3.20**
**1988****        2.87         2.93         2.57          2.88        3.23**
**1990****        2.88         2.87         2.44          2.85        3.19**
**1992**** ****       2.90         2.82         2.40          2.81        3.20**
**1994****        2.89         2.86         2.41          2.79        3.20**

## Mean Holstein parities by herd size

**                                             ****Cows (no.)**
**             ****          ****51–     101–   201–   501–  1001–   2001–**
**Year****    5–50    100     200     500    1000   2000    5000 **
** **
**1985**** ****   3.05    3.02    2.99    3.03    3.02    2.87     2.82  **
**1987****    2.95    2.94    2.92    2.95    2.96    2.86     2.60       ****1989****    2.85    2.85    2.85    2.92    2.88    2.83     2.73       **
**1991****    2.83    2.82    2.82    2.85    2.89    2.80     2.68     **
**1993****    2.82    2.79    2.77    2.80    2.89    2.81     2.76     **
**1994****    2.83    2.80    2.75    2.79    2.83    2.79     2.74     **

## US regions

## Mean Holstein parities by region

**             ****Mid-    Mid-      Mtn.-   North-  North-   South-  South-**
**Year **** ****    east     west    Prairie    east      west      east      west**
**1980****     3.24     3.09      3.03      3.43      3.23      3.14      3.22**
**1982****     3.16     2.99      2.96      3.32      3.11      3.13      3.17**
**1984****     3.03     2.91      2.95      3.23      3.04      3.01      3.14**
**1986 ****    2.97     2.83      2.89      3.14      2.99      2.89      3.03**
**1988****     2.90     2.74      2.81      3.06      2.91      2.82      2.97**
**1990****     2.88     2.73      2.78      3.02      2.90      2.74      2.91**
**1992****     2.80     2.71      2.78      2.95      2.83      2.67      2.90**
**1994****     2.74     2.70      2.74      2.92      2.84      2.59      2.89**

## When are cows culled?

## DIM at lactation termination

| Termination codes: |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 0 | = | Lactation in progress or ended normally |
| 2 | = | Sold for dairy purposes or testing discontinued |
| 3 | = | Low production |
| 4 | = | Reproductive problems |
| 5 | = | Not specified |
| 6 | = | Died |
| 7 | = | Mastitis or high SCC |
| 8 | = | Abortion |

## DIM at culling for Holsteins first calving 1998–99 by parity

**                                                 ****Parity**
**                       ****1          2          3          4          5        >5**
**    ****DIM****                                   % of total**
**    ****1–  29****	****4.1****	****2.4****	****3.3****	****4.5****	****11.4****	****25.2**
** **** ****30–  89****	****13.0****	****10.7****	****12.8****	****14.8****	****17.9****	****22.0**
** **** ****90–179****	****14.0****	****15.3****	****16.2****	****18.7****	****20.6****	****22.9              **
**180–299****	****20.2****	****26.0****	****25.6****	****25.8****	****25.3****	****18.4     **
**300–449****	****30.0****	****32.7****	****30.5****	****27.8****	****20.1****	****10.4 **
**     ****>449****	****18.8****	****13.0****	****11.6****	****8.9****	****4.4****	****1.0****     **

## Culling probability for cows 1st calving 1998–99

## Why are cows culled?

**Voluntary **

**Involuntary**

## USDA termination codes assigned to Holsteins not calving again by parity (first calving in 1998 or 1999)

**                                                                   ****Parity**
**                                         ****1          2          3         4          5        >5**
**Termination code****                                   % of total**
**0**** Lact. ended normally****	****26.1****	****24.1****	****21.9****	****15.1****	****4.9****	****0.2**
**3**** Low production****	****13.3****	****11.5****	****9.5****	****8.3****	****7.8****	****7.2**
**4**** Reproductive****	****17.8****	****17.8****	****15.6****	****15.1****	****13.8****	****10.1              **
**5**** Sold for beef****	****26.1****	****26.3****	****28.8****	****33.1****	****38.2****	****39.6     **
**6**** Died****	****8.4****	****8.8****	****10.3****	****12.0****	****15.7****	****21.2 **
**7**** Mastitis, high SCC****	****9.4****	****11.6****	****13.9****	****16.5****	****19.6****	****21.7****     **

## Impact of culling

## Mean calving age across all parities

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****57.2        58.9        54.3         51.8        54.6**
**1984 ****       55.0        55.3        51.7         50.1        52.5**
**1988 ****       53.9        55.8        49.8         49.5        51.7**
**1992 ****       53.3        53.8        48.5         47.8        49.5**
**1996 ****       53.4        53.1        49.1         46.9        50.1**
**2000  ****      54.1        52.0        48.3         45.7        48.6**
**2004 ****       54.3        51.0        48.5         44.6        46.6**

## Conclusions

**Cows are replaced sooner than before**
**Survival is primarily independent of herd size**
**Survival is highest in Northeast and Southwest, lowest in the Southeast**

## Conclusions

**Risk of exiting increases with parity**
** ****Most cows (69-72%) exit late (180 to 449 DIM) in early parities, but progressively earlier during later parities (50% by 149 DIM).**
**Need better information on health traits and reason for culling in DHI**
**Survival is highest in Northeast and Southwest, lowest in the Southeast**
**Overall breeding objective that includes but isn’t limited to survival **

## What dairy producers need

**Sound information so that producers can minimize cow losses**
**Effective communication so that producers use the information**
**Better software on who and when to cull**
**Overall breeding objective that includes but isn’t limited to survival**** **

**  ****Thank you**** **

## Survival to parity 5	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****23.5        21.8        16.6         24.2        27.9**
**1984 ****       21.2        22.1        16.4         21.6        26.8**
**1988 ****       18.4        21.9        13.5         18.4        25.9**
**1992 ****       19.5        19.9        11.4         16.6        25.0**
**1996 ****       21.1        18.0        11.5         14.7        24.1**
**1997  ****      20.2        19.3        12.1         14.3        25.4**

## Survival to parity 6	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****14.7        13.8         9.9          14.3        18.4**
**1984 ****       12.8        13.3         8.4          12.2        16.8**
**1988 ****       10.8        13.5         6.6            9.5        15.6**
**1992 ****       11.9        12.0         5.8            8.1        14.7**
**1996 ****       11.9          9.7         5.2            6.9        13.8**

## Survival to parity 8	

**                         ****    ****Brown**
**Year****     ****Ayrshire    Swiss   Guernsey   Holstein   Jersey**
**1980 ****       ****4.4           4.8          2.5           3.5          6.4**
**1984 ****       3.9           4.4          1.8           2.7          5.1**
**1988 ****       2.9           3.6          1.4           1.9          4.4**
**1992 ****       3.4           3.3          1.0           1.4          3.8**
**1994 ****       3.4           2.9          1.1           1.3          4.0**

## Mean lactations through 8

**Nieuwhof *****et al., *****1989**