Factors affecting reproductive performance of dairy cattle

Reproductive efficiency and milk yield are the most important parameters in cattle breeding. The main goal of dairy cattle industry is maximum milk production and to obtain a calf per year. High levels of milk production per lactation have been achieved in dairy cattle breeding, with intensive selection and management conditions being improved since the 1950s. However, depending on the high milk yield, serious problems in reproductive efficiency have begun. Currently, in dairy cattle, the new slogan is that enough milk production, high reproductive performance. Since, the genetic potential for milk production reach the upper limit of cow can produce milk and that high milk production alone is not sufficient for profitability. Dairy cattle industry, in which intensive research has been doing, is a large and dynamic sector. The studies on milk production in development countries are slowly shifting to issues such as reproductive efficiency, milk quality and genomic selection. However, the situation is different in Turkey. Although the improvement in genetic has been continuing intensively via the artificial insemination and importing stud animals, the target milk production per lactation other than the modern farms has not been reached, which means that our goal is still high milk yield. High producing breeds of cattle in Turkey are around 50% and the other part of animal population are need genetically improve. Therefore, reproductive performance in Turkey should be evaluated according to cattle breeds, farm types and the region. The factors effecting reproductive performance in Turkey are that inappropriate farm management, malnutrition, insufficient farm facilities, infectious diseases, inadequate estrus detection and untimed artificial insemination.