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Reversing Dairy Cattle Infertility
Published: Thu, 02 Dec 2004
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Research Note Full Title
Reversing dairy cattle infertility
A quarter century of declining fertility in dairy cattle has meant that a major problem now facing the UK farming sector is the very poor reproductive performance of high-yielding cows. Among the factors that, inevitably, have changed over the past 25 years are genotype and diet. A key question, therefore, concerns the extent to which each of these contributes to the problem of poor conception rates. Other issues - including management practices, intensity of production, and the changing metabolic demands and physiological repercussions of significantly increased milk yields - also cannot be ignored.
Objectives
Approach
As part of a multi-centre national research programme, scientists at SAC are examining the impact of nutrition and related factors (e.g. energy balance and body condition changes) on heifer fertility. Our focus is firmly fixed on determining how best to enhance the developmental competence of oocytes and embryos (i.e. eggs before and after fertilisation, respectively).
Outcomes
Achievements
Work to date has indicated that high-plane feeding can enhance development of follicles within the ovary. These follicles provide an environment within which the immature oocyte grows and is nourished.
Enhanced follicular development can be beneficial provided that the associated oocytes retain their capability to mature fully and, following fertilisation, to develop normally. Early indicators, however, are that the developmental competence of oocytes is susceptible to conventional high-plane feeding, especially of animals in good body condition.
Implications
Awareness of the contrasting effects of feed intake on follicular and oocyte development will facilitate essential studies of a range of dietary formulations, with a view to identifying those that best safeguard oocyte competence.
Understanding how conventional diets can be modified to sustain oocyte development will help enhance fertility when revised formulations are fed at levels required to meet milk production demands.