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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2023

Characterization and main factors of variation of milk production in suckler cows

Résumé

Adaptation of breeding strategies and genetics to climate change, right animal for right environment Abstract text: The improvement of conformation and muscular development in suckling herd results in a decrease in milk production (MP) leading to an increase of concentrate consumption by calves. In a tense economic, environmental and societal context, it is necessary to maintain or even improve the MP of beef cows to support calves'growth. Assessment of MP is indirect and consists to calculate milk drunk by the calf as the difference of its weight after and before suckling. The objectives of this work were to acquire knowledge on MP and determine the main factors of variation. For that, MP measured in Herbipole unit (more than 12,000 measures over 1000 cows controlled at least 7 times per cow and lactation) over the last 15 years in Charolais (C), Salers (S) and Limousin (L) cattle were analyzed. Breed is the main factor of variation of MP (29 % difference between S and L) :1600 ± 313 kg milk / lactation in L, 1840 ± 355 in C and 2250 ± 470 in S) as well as parity ±10% difference between primiparous and multiparous regardless of breed. In a "classic" system of weanling's production, characterized by a winter calving and semi-extensive pasture, two peaks are observed across the lactation. The first occurs one-month post-calving and the second largest at turnout. This peak is ranged from 0.8 to 2.3 kg of milk according to the breed, parity and calving date. In this study, the persistence of lactation and its variability were quantified, (-17 to-27 g drank milk / day). Persistence is higher for low-producing cows (-0.5 against-0.9 kg milk / day less per month) than for high-producing cows. High MP supports high growth rate of calf. Throughout lactation, this gain is 60 g/l of milk drunk in more, either 70 kg of live weight gain for a lactation of 2300 kg vs. 1200 kg. The composition of milk from suckler cows is very poorly known, a first approach was performed in a subset of Charolais cows. The average composition (in g/kg of milk) in protein, fat and lactose is respectively 35.4 ± 2.2 39.1 ± 10.2 and 49.9 ± 1.8. In suckler cows, a better characterization of MP and its composition is required to improve feed autonomy and contribute to animal selection strategies in a context of climatic deregulation.
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Dates et versions

hal-04175972 , version 1 (02-08-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04175972 , version 1

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Bernard Sepchat, Marc Barbet, Anne de La Torre. Characterization and main factors of variation of milk production in suckler cows. 74. Annual Meeting of European Federation of Animal Science, INRAE, Aug 2023, Lyon, France. ⟨hal-04175972⟩
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