Reasons for the culling of dairy cows on low-input mountain farms

Reasons for the culling of dairy cows were scrutinized on thirty-four low-input farms in the umava mountains in the Czech Republic. An increase in the frequency of the most common culling category - category 58 (other health reasons) - was identified in both the Holstein and Czech Fleckvieh breeds between 2000 and 2007: from 35% to 59% in the Holstein cows and from 19% to 41% in the Czech Fleckvieh cows (X2 test; P<0.001). This brought the Czech Fleckvieh cows to the same level of frequency as in the Czech Republic population, while the frequency among Holstein cows was on average 11% higher than in the Czech Republic population. The frequency of category 58 was higher in the Holstein than in the Czech Fleckvieh cows, but category 52 (low milk production) was more frequent in the Czech Fleckvieh than in the Holstein cows (P<0.001). There is a link between category 58 ‘other health reasons’ and an increase in the milk productivity of the cows; this results eventually in a higher incidence of metabolic disorders and is discussed in this paper.