The objective of the study is to investigate how an extended voluntary waiting period between calving and first insemination in primiparous cows would affect milk production and fertility during their first and second calving interval.

The data is registered between August 2018 to September 2021.

Data from 2 different sources. Access to these data is restricted due to the agreement with the principal owner of the data Växa Sverige.
1. Data (.txt files) from the Swedish Official Milk Recording System, operated by Växa Sverige regarding breed, calvings, inseminations, 305-d lactation yields, test-day yields, and dry-off dates from 16 farms. The inclusion criteria for the farms included herds with >100 dairy cows in production and a herd average milk production of at least 9 000 kg ECM/cow/year, a mean CI of < 14 months, and a system for daily milk yield registration.
2. Daily milk yields from the milking systems on the farms (three different types of systems: DeLaval, Lely and GEA), Excel files.

Metadata available:
One file with metadata, describing the data processing steps for each category of data, is provided. Also available are Code-lists for reading the data from the text files and for decoding the codes in the text files. R scripts with statistical calculations are also available.

.txt files with information about calvings, cullings, inseminations, parentage. Registered by Farm owners, staff, and animal health staff and .txt files with information about test milkings, lactation yields and yearly yields. Registered by Farm owners, and Eurofins lab.

Variables:
1. Calvings: FarmID, cow-ID, birth year, calving date, easy/difficult calving, calf sex, calf-ID, calf use, calving number
2. Parentage: FarmID, cow-ID, birth date, sex, father ID, father farm ID, birth year father, father breed, milk-index father, mother ID, mother farm ID, birth year mother, mother breed, milk-index mother, grandfather-ID, grandfather-farm ID, birth year grandfather-, grandfather-breed, milk-index grandfather
3. Inseminations: FarmID, cow-ID, insemination date, ear number used bull, pregnancy diagnosis, pregnancy diagnosis date
4. Culling: FarmID, cow-ID, in date (bought to the farm or birth), culling date, culling reason 1-3
5. test milking: FarmID, Cow-ID, birth year, Test milking date, kg milk, % fat, % protein, somatic cell count (SCC), urea, udder health cathegory
6. 305-day lactation yield: FarmID, Cow-ID, birth year, calving date, calving number, kg milk, kg fat, kg protein, farm breed mean kg fat, farm breed mean kg protein.
7. Dry-off date: FarmID, Cow-ID, dry-off date Show less..

Data contains personal data

Yes

Type of personal data

Far identity number which can be connected to other personal information such as owner adress, contact details etc.

Code key exists

Yes

Language

English

Swedish

Method and outcome

Time period(s) investigated

2018-08-01 – 2021-09

Data format / data structure

Text

Species and taxons

Bos taurus taurus linnaeus, 1758

Data collection

Mode of collection: Physical measurements and tests
Description of the mode of collection: Milk samples taken monthly at the farm analyzed by Eurofins Laboratory. The sample collection is organized by Växa Sverige that is also responsible for administration of the lab results.
Time period(s) for data collection: 2018-08-01 – 2021-09-13
Data collector: 16 commercial dairy farms
Instrument: Combifoss - Mid infrared spectroscopy (MIR) used to analyse the milk composition
Sample: milk
Monthly test milkings of all lactating cows in each herd
Source of the data: Registers/Records/Accounts: Administrative, Registers/Records/Accounts: Medical/Clinical, Registers/Records/Accounts
Temporal resolution: 1 month

Geographic coverage

Geographic spread

Geographic location: Sweden

Geographic description: The farms where the data is collected is situated in the south of Sweden in Västergötland, Småland, Västmanland, Närke, Östergötland, Gotland, Uppland, Värmland, Södermanland and Dalsland.

Administrative information

Responsible department/unit

Department of Animal Nutrition and Management

Contributor(s)

Maria Åkerlind - Växa Sweden

Kjell Holtenius - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department och Animal Nutrition and Management

Erling Strandberg - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics

Cecilia Kronqvist - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department och Animal Nutrition and Management

Renée Båge - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Clinical Sciences

Maria Åkerlind - Växa Sweden

Kjell Holtenius - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department och Animal Nutrition and Management

Erling Strandberg - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics

Cecilia Kronqvist - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department och Animal Nutrition and Management

Renée Båge - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Clinical Sciences

Växa Sweden

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Funding

Funding agency: Swedish farmers’ foundation for agricultural research
Funding agency's reference number: O-17-20-957
Project name on the application: Individuellt anpassad laktationslängd för lönsam och hållbar mjölkproduktion

Ethics Review

Uppsala - Ref. Dnr 5.8.18-10126/2018

There is an apporved Ethical review application, but in this part of the project we have not used information that needed ethical approval, only collection of data.

Topic and keywords

Research area

Animal and dairy science (Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011)

Keywords

Milk production, Fertility, Dairy cattle, Dairy cow, Dairy farm, Reproduction, Artificial insemination (animals), Extended voluntary waiting period, First service conception rate, Extended calving interval, Extended, Cow, Extended lactation, Services per conception, Lactation yield, Voluntary waiting period, Calving interval, Lactation