More milk, more challenges.

Dairy Today, November, 2005

Byline: Jim Dickrell

Dairy producers have long complained that their highest-producing cows were most likely to deliver twins and were also their toughest to breed. Dairy reproductive specialists acknowledge the higher probability of increased twinning (it's even noted on the BST label). But they've often scoffed at the claim that high producers failed to ovulate or were chronically cystic.

Now, new studies are starting to ferret out what's happening physiologically, and more importantly, what might be done about it.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have used the HeatWatch system to continuously monitor cows. Cows producing more than herd average (87 lb. per cow per day in this case) had only 6.2 hours of heat. Cows below herd...

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