Körperkondition, Gesundheit und Leistung von Öko-Milchkühen 2003 bis 2010 – Einfluss des Abkalbezeitraumes

Summary

Body condition (BCS), animal health and milk yield of dairy cattle has been investigated on 20 organic dairy farms with Holstein-Frisian (HF) between 2003 and 2010. The amount of grazing and the level of concentrate feeding are representative for organic dairy farms in North Germany. In average, the cows were rather scrawny. After calving they only lost little condition. Cows with calving dates in the first three months of the year showed the highest milk production: 7478 kg ECM cow-1 a-1 (Energy Corrected Milk). After calving in springtime the loss of condition was most clearly. These cows showed also high milk yields (7338 kg ECM cow-1 a-1) but not so long milk production (3.9 years). Life time milk production in this case was 4 % lower than in average. Cows which calved in summer showed the lowest milk production (6973 kg ECM cow-1 a-1) but were somewhat longer in lactation (4.2 years), life milk production was in average. The somatic cell count and the intercalving period were higher after calving in the first half of the year.