Genetic control of health treatment costs for Holsteins in 8 high-performance dairies

Abstract

Health treatments of Holsteins were recorded over an 8-year period of time and partitioned into 5 categories (mastitis, reproduction, lameness, metabolic, and miscellaneous). Fixed costs of health treatments were obtained from the veterinary clinics that serviced the 8 herds, and they were assigned to each observation. Health treatment cost of cows was highest during the first 30 days in milk for all parities and means ranged from $22.87 in first parity to $38.50 in fifth parity. The total of health treatment cost during first parity had means that ranged from $23.38 to $74.60 for the 8 herds and usually increased with parity. Estimates of heritability were 0.13, 0.04, 0.10, 0.12, and 0.04 for the mastitis, reproduction, lameness, metabolic, and miscellaneous categories, respectively, for first parity. The estimates of heritability for total health treatment cost were 0.25 for first, 0.16 for second, and 0.17 for third parity.