Short communication: Economic impact among 7 reproductive programs for lactating dairy cows, including a sensitivity analysis of the cost of hormonal treatments

摘要

Although hormonal synchronization programs canimprove reproductive efficiency of dairy herds, somefarmers question the economics of these programs basedon the upfront cost of hormonal treatments as opposedto the economic value of the resulting reproductiveperformance. Our aim was to compare the economicimpact of reproductive management programs thatincorporate varying degrees of detection of estrus andtimed artificial insemination (AI) in dairy herds withyear-round calving in confinement total mixed rationsystems. A reproductive economic analysis simulationmodel was used to compare the economic impact of pairsof reproductive management programs. We simulatedsets of scenarios for 2 analyses. In the first analysis,we calculated the economic impact of switching from aPresynch-Ovsynch program to a Double-Ovsynch programthat included a second PGF_(2α) treatment duringthe Breeding-Ovsynch portion of the program (Double-Ovsynch+PGF). In the second analysis, we conducteda break-even analysis in which the cost of hormonaltreatments was incrementally increased within variousreproductive management programs. Our analysesrevealed that a Double-Ovsynch+PGF program, themost intensive program evaluated, was more profitablethan other programs compared, including a Presynch-Ovsynch program with 100% timed AI or a Presynch-Ovsynch program that incorporated detection of estrus,despite the higher upfront cost incurred by using morehormonal treatments. This advantage remained untilthe cost of hormones was increased 5 to 14 times currentUS market prices and 2 to 6 times current Europeanmarket prices. The cost of GnRH had a greaterimpact on net profit gain than the cost of PGF_(2α). Inconclusion, more intensive reproductive programs thatuse more hormonal treatments but result in substantiallyincreased reproductive performance are moreprofitable than less intensive programs and remain soeven if hormone prices are unusually high.