Influence of Calving Ease on In-Line Milk Lactose and Other Milk Components

Abstract

The aim of our study was to determine how the ease of calving of cows may influence changes in lactose concentration and other milk components and whether these two factors correlate with each other. To achieve this, we compared data of calving ease scores and average percentage of in-line registered milk lactose and other milk components. A total of 4723 dairy cows from nine dairy farms were studied. The cows were from the second to the fourth lactation. All cows were classified according to the calving ease: group 1 (score 1)—no problems; group 2 (score 2)—slight problems; group 3 (score 3)—needed assistance; group 4 (score 4)—considerable force or extreme difficulty. Based on the data from the milking robots, during complete lactation we recorded milk indicators: milk yield MY (kg/day), milk fat (MF), milk protein (MP), lactose (ML), milk fat/lactose ratio (MF/ML), milk protein/lactose ratio (MP/ML), milk urea (MU), and milk electrical conductivity (EC) of all quarters of the udder. According to the results, we found that cows that had no calving difficulties, also had higher milk lactose concentration. ML > 4.7% was found in 58.8% of cows without calving problems. Cows with more severe calving problems had higher risk of mastitis (SCC and EC). Our data indicates that more productive cows have more calving problems compared to less productive ones.