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Milk yield dynamics as indicators for disease in dairy cows
B G C de Bruijn1, I D E van Dixhoorn2, B Kemp3
1Adaptation Physiology group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, 6708 WD, the Netherlands; Wageningen Livestock Research, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, 6708 WD, the Netherlands.
Journal of Dairy Science
|April 5, 2026
Summary
Dairy cows with early lactation health issues show altered milk yield patterns. Analyzing milk yield dynamics can help detect diseases, improving herd health management.
Area of Science:
- Animal Science
- Veterinary Medicine
- Dairy Production
Background:
- Dairy cows frequently experience diseases in early lactation, leading to significant milk yield losses.
- Milk yield fluctuations have been proposed as indicators for monitoring dairy cow health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between dairy cow health status in early lactation (first 56 days in milk) and milk yield dynamics.
- To analyze both lactation curve characteristics and dynamic indicators derived from milk yield deviations for health monitoring.
Main Methods:
- Utilized daily milk yield and disease treatment data from four previous experiments.
- Categorized cows based on health status (no health problem, systemic/inflammatory, other) and disease treatments.
- Calculated lactation curve characteristics (peak production, slope, etc.) and dynamic indicators (log-transformed variance, autocorrelation, etc.).
- Employed mixed models to analyze the associations between disease treatments and milk yield dynamics.
Main Results:
- Systemic or inflammatory health problem (SHP) cows had lower peak production and total yield within 56 days in milk (DIM).
- SHP cows with parity three or higher showed delayed peak production and reduced slope to peak.
- Cows with health problems (SHP and other health problems) exhibited higher log-transformed variance (LnVar) in milk yield.
- Specific diseases like endometritis or cystic ovaries correlated with higher autocorrelation (Rauto), while claw/leg disorders were linked to lower mean negative residuals (MNR).
- Increased number of disease treatments correlated with higher LnVar, indicating greater milk yield perturbations.
Conclusions:
- Lactation curve characteristics effectively identified cows with systemic or inflammatory health problems.
- Dynamic milk yield indicators identified both systemic/inflammatory and other health problems.
- Further research into specific disease impacts on milk yield dynamics could enable practical on-farm health monitoring tools.
