University of Wisconsin Madison, USA, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences
Presentation title: The impact of periparturient Body Condition Score on cow health and reproductive performance.
Prof. Paul Fricke completeted his PhD in Reproductive Physiology at the department of Animal Sciences at the North Dakota State University in 1996. Since 1998 he is working at the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin Madison. In 2009 he was promoted to Full Professor. Prof. Fricke is doing research and has an extension programme to in improve reproductive efficiency in dairy cows by developing practical management strategies for dairy farms.
High fertility is at the core of high milk production on the dairy farm. The dogma was always that all cows lose body condition after calving, and we just need to manage this through an intervention, so they gain that body condition back towards dry off. Dr. Fricke challenges this dogma showing not all cows lose body condition score (BCS) after calving, especially the cows with a BCS ≤3 at calving. These cows tend to maintain BCS, have better fertility, get bred sooner, have lower disease incidence, and enter the high-fertility-cycle.
