REASONS FOR CULLING IN FRENCH HOLSTEIN COWS

The study describes the profiles of culled cows in order to assess the possible contribution to economic losses due to health disorders. Dat a regarding dates of birth, final calving and culling, parity at culli ng, milk yield at the two first test-days of the final lactation and r eason(s) for culling were collected in a 5-year survey, carried out fr om 1989 to 1994 in 84 commercial Holstein farms in western France. Pol ytomous logistic regression was used to assess the relationship betwee n parity, calving-to-culling interval, milk yield and eight groups of primary culling reasons (i.e. udder disorders; infertility or reproduc tive disorders; lameness or foot/leg defects; emergency culling reason s; other health disorders; low milk yield; sales for dairy purpose; an d other voluntary culling reasons), Out of a total of 5133 culled cows , the proportions of culls, for each of these groups of reasons, were 12.4, 78.4, 2.7, 3.9, 4.6, 16.7, 5.9, and 25.4%, respectively. Cows cu lled for udder disorders left the herd earlier in lactation and were m ore frequently at parities 4-6 than cows culled for voluntary reasons. In contrast, cows culled for infertility were younger and culled late r within lactation. They were also higher yielding cows than those cul led for other reasons. Cows culled for lameness were similar to those of the voluntarily culling group. Cows culled for emergency reasons we re more frequently younger cows in early lactation. Cows culled for ot her health disorders left the herd early in lactation, but at a higher parity than the voluntarily culled cows. These results suggest that m ost of the culls related to health could be contributing to economic l oss. However, special priority should be given to reduce culling for r eproductive problems, which is the most costly exit reason. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.