Why do dairy cows die?
Key points: -Dairy mortality problems are related to culling, disease, and injury problems. -Analyses of specific reasons for increasing mortality are not available. -Producer assessments of mortality causes are often inaccurate and do not provide information that can be used to decrease the problem. Most studies of dairy cow mortality have come from outside the United States. The U.S. studies on this issue have been primarily focused on culling and herd turnover rates rather than death losses per se. The 2007 national survey of dairies in the U.S. showed that approximately 23.6% of dairy cows left herds permanently during 2007, and that approximately 5.5% of these cows were sold to other dairies, while 94% were culled (i.e., sold and not returned to milk production, sent for slaughter). The reasons cows were culled included reproductive failure (26.3% of culled cows), mastitis and udder problems (23%), lameness or injury (16%), other disease (3.7%), and poor milk production not relate
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