Lactation and gestation in dairy cows: flexibility avoids nutritional extremes

The modern dairy cow has been selectively bred to produce large amounts of milk. Partly as a result, food consumption is considerably less than milk energy output in early lactation. It is only at 2 months or more postpartum that intake increases to the point where positive energy balance is regained, the initial production being achieved by a substantial mobilisation of body reserves. These reserves are laid down before parturition, but it is certainly not the case that the pregnant cow will accumulate adipose tissue recklessly; in the last third of pregnancy well-fed cows in good body condition exhibit reduced, not increased, appetite. There is a fine balancing act to perform. Excessive body condition at parturition quickly leads to metabolic problems such as ketosis, but cows who subsequently become too thin have increased risk of metabolic diseases such as mastitis and lameness. The biological mechanisms regulating output of milk are reasonably well understood, those controlling appetite less well so, and there has been little attempt at systematic integration of the two. The transition from pregnancy to lactation represents a major challenge to homeostasis, made more complicated in multiparous cows by the fact that much of gestation is concurrent with lactation. Herein lies the potential for nutritionally-entrained flexibility. In the wild, concurrent pregnancy and lactation only occur when nutritional conditions are favourable. If conditions are poor, rebreeding will be delayed and lactation will continue, at an energetically-sustainable level, for much longer than its 'normal' duration. In this way the twin energetic burdens of pregnancy and lactation are separated, and extremes are avoided. Given the increasing public concern about stresses suffered by intensively-managed dairy cows, this case may be one where commercial dairying could learn useful lessons from nature.