Adriaens Ines, Bonekamp Gerbrich, Ten Napel Jan, Kamphuis Claudia, De Haas Yvette
Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Department of Biosystems, Livestock Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Front Genet. 2023 Jun 1;14:1120073. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1120073. eCollection 2023.
Global sustainability issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security require food systems to become more resource efficient and better embedded in the local environment. This needs a transition towards more diverse, circular and low-input dairy farming systems with animals best suited to the specific environmental conditions. When varying environmental challenges are posed to animals, cows need to become resilient to disturbances they face. This resilience of dairy cows for disturbances can be quantified using sensor features and resilience indicators derived from daily milk yield records. The aim of this study was to explore milk yield based sensor features and resilience indicators for different cattle groups according to their breeds and herds. To this end, we calculated 40 different features to describe the dynamics and variability in milk production of first parity dairy cows. After correction for milk production level, we found that various aspects of the milk yield dynamics, milk yield variability and perturbation characteristics indeed differed across herds and breeds. On farms with a lower breed proportion of Holstein Friesian across cows, there was more variability in the milk yield, but perturbations were less severe upon critical disturbances. Non-Holstein Friesian breeds had a more stable milk production with less (severe) perturbations. These differences can be attributed to differences in genetics, environments, or both. This study demonstrates the potential to use milk yield sensor features and resilience indicators as a tool to quantify how cows cope with more dynamic production conditions and select animals for features that best suit a farms' breeding goal and specific environment.
气候变化、生物多样性丧失和粮食安全等全球可持续发展问题要求粮食系统提高资源利用效率，并更好地融入当地环境。这需要向更多样化、循环和低投入的奶牛养殖系统转变，养殖最适合特定环境条件的动物。当动物面临各种环境挑战时，奶牛需要对它们所面临的干扰具有恢复力。奶牛对干扰的这种恢复力可以使用从每日产奶量记录中得出的传感器特征和恢复力指标来量化。本研究的目的是根据不同牛群的品种和牛群，探索基于产奶量的传感器特征和恢复力指标。为此，我们计算了40种不同的特征来描述头胎奶牛产奶量的动态变化和变异性。在对产奶水平进行校正后，我们发现产奶量动态、产奶量变异性和扰动特征的各个方面在不同牛群和品种之间确实存在差异。在奶牛中荷斯坦弗里生品种比例较低的农场，产奶量的变异性更大，但在关键干扰下扰动不太严重。非荷斯坦弗里生品种的产奶量更稳定，扰动较少（严重）。这些差异可归因于遗传、环境或两者的差异。本研究表明，利用产奶量传感器特征和恢复力指标作为一种工具，来量化奶牛如何应对更动态的生产条件，并根据最适合农场育种目标和特定环境的特征选择动物具有潜力。
