Failure of cortisol injected prior to milking to inhibit milk ejection in dairy cattle

To test the potential for cortisol to inhibit milk ejection directly, 18 Holstein cows were divided equally into control and treatment groups based on milk yields. For treated animals, a single injection of cortisol was made into the saphenous vein 15 min before milkings. Increasing amounts of cortisol (0, 25, 50, and 100 mg) were injected for one morning and one evening milking, with the exception that the treated cows received only one 100 mg injection. Control animals received injections of 0.9% (w/v) NaCl. Cortisol injections had no effect on milk yields. However, a potential inhibitory mechanism might involve a delay, perhaps due to the necessity of synthesizing a regulatory protein. Therefore, to test the potential for increased cortisol over a period of hours to inhibit milk ejection, six of the nine cows in the treatment group were injected with 100 mg of cortisol at 3.25, 2.25, 1.25 and 0.25 h before sequential morning and evening milkings. In blood samples taken 1 min before and after injections, base-line cortisol concentrations averaged 10.2 mg/ml; after injection they were 984.1 ng/ml, and before subsequent injections they were 37.6 ng/ml. Again cortisol injections had no effect on milk yields.