Constraints in Production and Marketing of Arecanut in Salem District of Tamil Nadu, India

Arecanut is an important cash crop in our country. The study was carried out to ascertain the constraints faced by arecanut farmers in Salem district of Tamil Nadu with a sample size of 120, by employing proportionate random sampling technique. Majority of the respondents expressed lack of specific grading of nuts in marketing as a constraint. More than three-fourths of the respondents suggested that there should be a mechanism to regulate import of nuts from other countries and to create market potential for nuts in the local markets

A fresh look at inter-service intervals in UK dairy herds

Good heat detection is essential for good reproductive performance in the modern dairy herd using artificial insemination. Veterinary surgeons and farmers use a variety of tools to monitor heat detection including the analysis of inter-service intervals (ISIs). The aim of this study was to explore the distribution of inter-service intervals in a large sample of UK dairy herds and establish targets for use by practitioners when interpreting ISIs. In this study service records from 167 dairy herds from across the UK were used to generate ISI profiles for each calendar year of each herd. Intervals between serves were categorised as short irregular (2-17 days), short regular (18-24 days), long irregular (25-35 days), long regular (36-48 days) or extended (>48 days). Herd years were ranked by oestrus detection efficiency, the mean of the top quartile of herd-years had 6%, 40%, 16%, 19% and 19% of intervals in each interval category respectively. There was no correlation between the percentage of serves falling in the short regular and short irregular category for a given herd-year (Spearman rho magnitude <0.01, p=0.84), suggesting little direct correlation between the sensitivity and specificity of a herd’s heat detection. The results show a substantial difference to accepted targets and will be of use when interpreting herd data and target setting for UK dairy herds

A fresh look at inter-service intervals in UK dairy herds

Good heat detection is essential for good reproductive performance in the modern dairy herd using artificial insemination. Veterinary surgeons and farmers use a variety of tools to monitor heat detection including the analysis of inter-service intervals (ISIs). The aim of this study was to explore the distribution of inter-service intervals in a large sample of UK dairy herds and establish targets for use by practitioners when interpreting ISIs. In this study service records from 167 dairy herds from across the UK were used to generate ISI profiles for each calendar year of each herd. Intervals between serves were categorised as short irregular (2-17 days), short regular (18-24 days), long irregular (25-35 days), long regular (36-48 days) or extended (>48 days). Herd years were ranked by oestrus detection efficiency, the mean of the top quartile of herd-years had 6%, 40%, 16%, 19% and 19% of intervals in each interval category respectively. There was no correlation between the percentage of serves falling in the short regular and short irregular category for a given herd-year (Spearman rho magnitude <0.01, p=0.84), suggesting little direct correlation between the sensitivity and specificity of a herd’s heat detection. The results show a substantial difference to accepted targets and will be of use when interpreting herd data and target setting for UK dairy herds

Associations between dairy cow inter-service interval and probability of conception

Recent research has indicated that the interval between inseminations in modern dairy cattle is often longer than the commonly accepted cycle length of 18–24 days. This study analysed 257,396 inseminations in 75,745 cows from 312 herds in England and Wales. The interval between subsequent inseminations in the same cow in the same lactation (inter-service interval, ISI) were calculated and inseminations categorised as successful or unsuccessful depending on whether there was a corresponding calving event. Conception risk was calculated for each individual ISI between 16 and 28 days. A random effects logistic regression model was fitted to the data with pregnancy as the outcome variable and ISI (in days) included in the model as a categorical variable. The modal ISI was 22 days and the peak conception risk was 44% for ISIs of 21 days rising from 27% at 16 days. The logistic regression model revealed significant associations of conception risk with ISI as well as 305 day milk yield, insemination number, parity and days in milk. Predicted conception risk was lower for ISIs of 16, 17 and 18 days and higher for ISIs of 20, 21 and 22 days compared to 25 day ISIs. A mixture model was specified to identify clusters in insemination frequency and conception risk for ISIs between 3 and 50 days. A “high conception risk, high insemination frequency” cluster was identified between 19 and 26 days which indicated that this time period was the true latent distribution for ISI with optimal reproductive outcome. These findings suggest that the period of increased numbers of inseminations around 22 days identified in existing work coincides with the period of increased probability of conception and therefore likely represents true return estrus events

Lameness in cattle: recent research to inform clinical practice

Lameness in cattle has significant consequences for welfare, health and productivity. More research is now being done on lameness and this article, the first in a two-part series, provides an update on research-based advances in the field published from around the world over the past five years. These developments have improved our understanding of lameness in cattle and can inform clinical practice and the control of lameness on-farm. The second article, to be published in a subsequent issue of In Practice, will cover the understanding and management of claw health and claw horn lesions

Evaluation of treatments for claw horn lesions in dairy cows in a randomized controlled trial

Lameness is one of the most significant endemic disease problems facing the dairy industry. Claw horn lesions (principally sole hemorrhage, sole ulcer, and white line disease) are some of the most prevalent conditions. Despite the fact that thousands of animals are treated for these conditions every year, experimental evidence is limited on the most effective treatment protocols. A randomized, positively controlled clinical trial was conducted to test the recovery of newly lame cows with claw horn lesions. Animals on 5 farms were locomotion scored every 2 wk. Cows were eligible for recruitment if they had 2 nonlame scores followed by a lame score and had a claw horn lesion on a single claw of a single foot. Following a therapeutic trim, enrolled cows were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 treatments: treatment 1—no further treatment (positive control; TRM), treatment 2—trim plus a block on the sound claw (TB), treatment 3—trim plus a 3-d course of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ketoprofen (TN), treatment 4—trim plus a block plus ketoprofen (TBN). The primary outcome measure was locomotion score 35 d after treatment, by an observer blind to treatment group. Descriptive statistics suggested that treatment groups were balanced at the time of enrollment, that is, randomization was successful. Based on a sound locomotion score (score 0) 35 d after treatment, the number of cures was 11 of 45 (24.4%) for TRM, 14 of 39 (35.9%) for TB, 12 of 42 (28.6%) for TN, and 23 of 41 (56.1%) for TBN. The difference between TBN and TRM was significant. To test for confounding imbalances between treatment groups, logistic regression models were built with 2 outcomes, either sound (score 0) or nonlame (score 0 or 1) 35 d after treatment. Compared with TRM, animals that received TBN were significantly more likely to cure to a sound outcome. Farm, treatment season, lesion diagnosis, limb affected, treatment operator, and stage of lactation were included in the final models. Our work suggests that lameness cure is maximized with NSAID treatment in addition to the common practices of therapeutic trimming and elevation of the diseased claw using a block when cows are newly and predominantly mildly lame

Novel gonadal characteristics in an aged bovine freemartin

The gonads from a five year old freemartin Holstein animal were subjected to morphological analysis and to immunohistochemistry using antibodies against developmental and functional markers. We demonstrate, for the first time, the retention of anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) producing intratubular cells (Sertoli cells) in the context of abundant steroidogenic interstitial cells, and structures consistent with clusters of luteal cells. This novel report describes the clinical, gross and histological findings accompanying this newly described gonadal immunophenotype, and its implication in the understanding of freemartin development

Variation in the inter-service intervals of UK dairy cows

An understanding of the normal estrous cycle length of the cow is important when managing and monitoring dairy herd fertility. Whilst the normal inter-ovulatory interval is widely considered to be 21 days, some studies have found alternative intervals to be more prevalent; previously most of the variation in interval length was expected to be between cows. The aim of this study was to assess the time between inseminations (inter-service interval, ISI), in a large number of dairy cows and to explore possible associations between cow factors and estrous cycle length. The study used ISI data from 42,252 cows in 159 herds across England and Wales. Univariate analysis of the subset of 114,572 intervals between 15 and 30 days (a range covering the increased frequency of ISIs occurring at the expected time of the first return to estrus) following an insemination revealed a modal ISI of 22 days. Primiparous heifers had a modal ISI of 21 days. There were significant differences between the distribution of ISIs for different yield groups, parity numbers and the number of inseminations. Multilevel regression modelling was used to evaluate the associations between cow factors and ISI, whilst accounting for clustering at the herd and cow level. This revealed significant associations between predicted ISI and insemination number, days in milk, lactation 305 day milk yield, and month and year of insemination. Variance partition coefficients indicated that only 1% of variation in ISIs was at the herd level, 12% at the animal level and 87% at the insemination level, indicating that cycle length varies substantially more between cycles within a cow than between cows or herds. These findings suggest the “normal” range of ISI for modern UK dairy cows is longer than expected and that there is a large amount of unexplained variation in cycle length within individual animals over time