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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #408471
Research Project: Increasing Accuracy of Genomic Prediction, Developing Algorithms, Selecting Markers, and Evaluating New Traits to Improve Dairy Cattle

Location: Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory

Title: Evaluating fertility in the wake of embryo transfer

Author
item Miles, Asha

Submitted to: Progressive Dairyman
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/13/2023
Publication Date: 10/17/2023
Citation: Miles, A.M. 2023. Evaluating fertility in the wake of embryo transfer. Progressive Dairyman. https://www.agproud.com/articles/58397-evaluating-fertility-in-the-wake-of-embryo-transfer.

Interpretive Summary: Of the many reasons a cow may leave the milking herd, culling for reproductive problems is one of the most. The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) provides fertility evaluations on a regular basis to help guide farm breeding programs. Reproductive technologies have advanced significantly since these evaluations were developed. Commercial embryo transfer is one example, and is making waves in reproductive management and how we evaluate fertility. This article discusses recent measures taken to improve the accuracy of fertility evaluations and ways the industry can support the next crucial steps in this research.

Technical Abstract: Accurate fertility evaluations rely on matching breeding events entered into farm management software with a confirmed pregnancy and resulting calf. Unfortunately, ET breeding event reporting is not matching its popularity. Since April 2022, the models for evaluating sire, cow, and heifer conception rate have been modified to remove herdyears that report over 10% of their calves born by ET but transmit less than half of the expected number of ET breeding events. The effects of this edit were overall small, with the biggest changes in conception rate PTAs observed for young bulls with high NM$ and popular for ET usage. Correct recording at the farm-level is the first step towards improving data flow; the next challenge is standardizing the exchange of ET codes from on-farm software to Dairy Records Processing Centers. This will require the cooperation of software providers to modify their programs for the long-term storage and transfer of ET data and work in this area is ongoing. Completely removing ET animals from the evaluation system is not the best approach because they represent the most elite animals and are making up an increasingly larger proportion of the US dairy population. From a research perspective, this can only be improved with better flow of high-quality data related to ET and reproductive management.