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Irish Examiner
07-05-2025
- Science
- Irish Examiner
The anonymous cow - the 'old faithfuls' on every farm
A cow's resilience is heritable, ranging from 0.01 to 0.2 heritability, an American-based study on cow stress responses has found. The findings of the study, which was conducted by Ms Fiona Louise Guinan, a PhD fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison presented her findings at the BSAS (British Society of Animal Science) conference this April. Ms Guinan's presentation on her study 'Dairy cow resilience: data-driven detection and quantification of perturbations using daily milk weights,' received the 'Developing Talent Award' for her approach of utilizing precision technology and animal health science to support improved welfare and productivity in the dairy sector at the conference. The concept of Ms Guinan's study aimed to answer the oxymoron 'How do we identify the anonymous cow?' The cow that gives a farmer so few issues, you don't even know her tag number, she just blends in, a pure herd animal. Ms Guinan cited in her presentation an American legend by the name of 'Granny,' the Holstein cow that held the national lifetime milk production record from 2003-2020, who produced 458,616 lbs of milk in her lifetime, but went relatively unnoticed by the farmers who milked her until she received her award. Ms Guinan's study aimed to try to identify these anonymous cows, the herd's 'old faithfuls', through her monitoring of daily milk weights. The study Ms Guinan used data already at the fingertips of many farmers, milk data, health, and breeding records. This study contained an eye-watering 410 million individual daily milk weight records, 37.8 million test day records, 4.4 million health records, and 5.5 million breeding records. These records represented 702,861 cows within 312 herds in 37 states across the US. US dairy herds typically segregate their cattle in pens based on factors such as parity, lactation stage, calving age, and milk production. With this pen structure, Ms Guinan monitored animals in smaller groups while also monitoring localised perturbations or challenges experienced by the cow on a pen basis. Perturbations mainly came in the form of environmental challenges to the cow through extreme weather events or illness in the shed. To help quantify resilience, Ms Guinan first investigated consistency in the cows. Observing lactation curves based on expected and observed daily milk weights, Ms Guinan was able to identify consistent cows amongst the large population being observed. The consistent cows observed less variation between the expected and observed lactation curves throughout the study, even when experiencing perturbations. The inconsistent or 'troublemaker' cows had their milk production vary a lot throughout their lactation period. Based on the occurrence of perturbations, the inconsistent cow's lactation curve dropped before correcting itself, days or sometimes weeks later. Consistent cows have fewer health problems, increased longevity, and are more labour efficient,' Ms Guinan explained with animal consistency scoring moderately in heritability at 0.24. On the back of consistency, Ms Guinan went on to explain resilience in the context of her study. 'Resilience is the bounce back to normal functioning after a disturbance occurs.' To quantify resilience, Ms Guinan again monitored the expected and observed milk curves, focusing specifically during periods where perturbations occurred. She 'investigated 40 different combinations of severity and duration, ranging from at least a 3% difference between the observed and expected milk production to at least 7% difference in milk yield loss and severity, ranging from at least three days to at least 10 days.' The top six most resilient cows in the study lost little to no milk during perturbation periods. However, the six least resilient cows experienced 30% milk loss during the same periods, with Ms Guinan concluding, 'the greater the challenge level, the more resilience is expressed.' 'Resilience is heritable, ranging from 0.01 to 0.2 depending on the challenge level and the duration,' she said as a take-home message for the attendees of the conference. A farmer can identify a period and level of perturbation using their cows' daily milk weights, with cows responding differently at the pen level. Subsequent findings of the study found that the more consistent and resilient cows had a positive correlation with milk production and health traits, while the least resistant cows displayed lower health traits, fertility, and generally lower predicted transmitting ability (PTA). With the Netherlands already having implemented a resilience index on their herd profiles and US farmers being interested in obtaining animal scores to highlight their anonymous resilient cows, particularly as Ms Guinan explained with the 'lower trained labour availability,' also being experienced in the US as well as Ireland maybe a resilience sub-index may be the next criteria to appear on EBI profiles for Irish herds. Read More ICBF TB scoring – What farmers need to know
Irish Examiner
24-04-2025
- Science
- Irish Examiner
Farm View: With Bovaer, scientific promise meets public scepticism
In an era when agriculture is under growing pressure to curb its environmental impact, innovations that promise to slash emissions should be cause for celebration. Yet, as the story of Bovaer shows, even the best science can falter in the face of public mistrust. I was interested to read this week that representatives from DSM at the British Society of Animal Science conference told delegates they were working on further developments with their methane-inhibiting feed supplement Bovaer. But as most readers of these pages will know, unfortunately, scientific development is not the big challenge facing the Dutch firm's star product. DSM has a huge public relations journey ahead. The heat might have died down over recent conspiracy theories and allegations of 'poison milk', but the whole PR disaster, which saw false claims about the safety of milk allowed to spread unchecked online for several weeks, continues to rumble on on social media. Peer-reviewed studies When I first wrote about Bovaer, DSM had a publicly available report containing 52 peer-reviewed studies into its efficacy and effects. Today, that figure is almost twice as high, with 92 studies now published. DSM claims Bovaer is the most extensively studied and scientifically proven solution to the challenge of burped methane to date. Feeding just a quarter of a teaspoon per day, reductions of 30% in dairy cows and 45% in beef cattle are possible. Yet the whole ordeal, and lack of public defence from DSM, has undermined both consumer trust enough that many firms and farmers are not prepared to take the risk of being associated with the innovative product, despite its huge potential to reduce agricultural methane emissions. Sometimes, working in the media sphere, it can feel like large corporations can be overly protective and aggressive over small nuances in published work. But the saga with Bovaer shows the danger of leaving untruths unchecked for several weeks. In this instance, silence has allowed these claims the space to spread like wildfire. Public trust in agri-food systems is critical. It doesn't matter just how great the miracle product is at this stage, if farmers and co-ops refuse to use it out of fear of backlash. Ultimately, efforts to radically innovate could be wasted if there is no public support for the end product — no matter how much of a miracle it might be.
Agriland
22-04-2025
- Science
- Agriland
Irish researchers among winners at BSAS awards
The British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) has announced the winners of its 2025 awards, which recognise exceptional contributions to animal science, research, and industry advancement. These awards, presented at the BSAS annual conference at the Galway Bay Hotel, showcase the innovative work and scientific excellence driving progress across the field. The industry prize was awarded to Sarah Woodmartin of Teagasc for her study on the effect of sward type on growth performance, enteric methane output and the rumen microbiome in lambs during the post-weaning period. The judges said that her research offers practical insights into sustainable livestock production. Kevin Linehan, of Teagasc was one of the joint winners of the innovation prize for his work with bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria as silage inoculants to reduce methane emissions in dairy cattle. Riccardo Bica, from ZELP was the other winner of the prize for the development of a field-deployable device for continuous methane and carbon dioxide emission measurement in cattle, offering a scalable alternative to traditional respiration chambers. BSAS Siobhán O'Callaghan, Queen's University Belfast, received the president's prize for her work on feeding behaviour in Holstein cattle fed different milk allowances as calves. Her research contributes to our understanding of early-life nutrition and its long-term impacts on animal health and performance. The best poster award was presented to Rischi Robinson Male Here of Teagasc for his work on the effect of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser application rates pre-grazing on rumen and blood variables of post-weaned dairy-beef calves. The research provides new understanding into the physiological effects of fertiliser strategies on young ruminants. The prestigious Sir John Hammond Award, the highest honour bestowed by BSAS, was awarded to Dr Craig Lewis in recognition of his outstanding contributions to animal science, pioneering research, and lasting impact on industry practice. Craig's leadership and commitment to advancing the sector continue to inspire scientists and practitioners alike. Dr Craig Lewis being presented with the Sir John Hammond Award The Christopher Wathes Award went to Lucy Markland, supporting her attendance at BSAS 2025 and enabling her to present her research to a global audience. May Allan, from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), the winner of the undergraduate thesis of the year award 2024 also presented her work to the animal science community at the conference. May's research explores the potential of probiotic supplementation in managing Cryptosporidium infections in young calves. Fiona Louise Guinan, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, received the developing talent award for her study on dairy cow resilience, using data-driven detection and quantification of perturbations through daily milk weights.
