On today’s episode Scott Zehr and Dr. Larry Roth further discuss the 920-cow study focusing on the statistically significant reproduction improvements. Even with DON and Zearalenone toxins present in the feed at levels considered acceptable by many, the study revealed tremendous potential for improving first-service conception rates when mycotoxins are controlled.
To grasp the true impact of mycotoxins on cattle health and production, routine testing of feedstuffs is necessary. It’s critical to know what is actually going into the cow and the only way to do that is to test feedstuffs, especially the TMR! Contact us here.
🎧 Listen now to set your herd up for lifelong success!
Scott
Welcome everybody once again, to the Ruminate This podcast with Agrarian solutions. I’m your host Scott Zehr, and this is episode number two, part two DTX research results, reproduction data. And once again, I’m joined by my colleague, vice president of nutrition at Agrarian Solutions Dr. Larry Roth.
And we’re going to be talking about the exciting research that we did. You heard a little bit in episode two, part one about the production research data and the benefits there. And now we’re going to talk about the reproduction data. Larry once again, welcome to the podcast, Ruminate This podcast and look forward to discussing this.
Dr. Larry Roth
All right. Look forward to it, Scott.
Scott
So Larry, we, we covered the production data. You know, good results there, especially in those mature cows. We teased it a little bit in episode two, part one, that we did see something out of those first lactation animals. And I think we’re going to get into that today.
But before we dive into that, I just want to, okay, so what did we intend to look at from a reproduction side and why? And maybe you share your thoughts on that.
Dr. Larry Roth
All right. So Scott, you know, I think one of the most important economic determinators on the farm is do we get cows pregnant and do they stay pregnant?
So these are cows that were synchronized double off sync for first service plus or minus 73 days in milk. This is a herd that also had an aggressive embryo transfer program. 90 percent of first lactation cows received an embryo, 99 percent of second and third received an embryo as well. So very aggressive.
And then, first lactation that did not receive an embryo, received sex hosting semen, and then all of the other cows that did not receive an embryo received conventional beef semen. So, pretty aggressive in terms of what they’re doing for embryos. And then maybe not a whole lot of sexed semen, but some sexed semen was used.
So what, what can we do to get cows pregnant and help them to stay that way?
Scott
Yeah. So those of you listening, so reproduction is my passion. Larry, you’ve heard me say this a thousand times, if not more. Reproduction, is really what I consider the hub of any dairy operation and really beef operation too.
But, what’s the one thing that has to happen, Larry, before we can milk that cow? She has to have a calf.
Dr. Larry Roth
Exactly.
Scott
And so when I think of reproduction. Man, this is, this is the hub. I think of a wagon wheel with spokes, and this is in my humble opinion, the most important factor on the dairy. So many things affect reproduction though, management.
You know, protocol, compliance, all these different things. What specifically with mycotoxins is our concern pertaining to reproduction?
Dr. Larry Roth
All right. So, mycotoxins cause an inflammatory response. Big deal. Well, that takes nutrients. Takes nutrients away from what we’re wanting the nutrients to go into.
Might be growth for milk lactation animals. Milk production, obviously. And then the very last thing that the cow thinks about doing with nutrients is getting pregnant and staying that way. So we talk about nutrient repartitioning, talk about nutrient drain that comes from the inflammatory response to mycotoxin contamination in the diet.
So if we could help the cow protect herself against mycotoxins, reduce the degree of the inflammatory response, hey, we got more nutrients for productive purposes, making milk. And getting the cow pregnant and staying that way. Pretty simple.
Scott
Yeah. It’s, it’s pretty amazing when you think about just the basics of how these animals allocate their nutrient resources, right.
Staying alive, producing milk for our current generation, our offspring, and then focusing on the next generation in that order. And, and so I, I like what you said there about the inflammation when we have to take those nutrients away to take care of an inflammatory response. Yes, they’re, we all know that, right.
They’re going to drain it from reproduction first. I mean any dairy farmer out there, any nutritionist, veterinary, they’ve all heard they all know repro is always the first thing to go. And, and so, you know, that’s kind of why. So, okay. So mycotoxins, nutrient drain, inflammation and that’s how we’re going to affect reproduction.
So, talk to us about the DTX research that we did with Dairy Health and Management Services. What did we want to look at specifically? First service is what we looked at, right? And then we followed those cows up for how long?
Dr. Larry Roth
Right. So cows were service, like we said before, synchronized for 73 days and milk.
And then the first preg check was 28 to 34 days later. And then the second preg check was 61 to 67 days after the first service.
Scott
Okay. And Larry, I understand you have some slides you want to pull up for us. And, you know, when you’re watching on YouTube, I know if you’re listening, you can’t see it on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts, you’re not gonna be able to see these slides. But you can go to our website, agrariansolutions. com and you’ll see if you click on the DTX logo, you’ll come to the DTX landing page. And you’ll be able to see all this data in our production and reproduction reports.
So Larry, you got the slides pulled up, so just kind of tell us a little bit about this and we’ll go through here.
Dr. Larry Roth
Scott, let’s just review a few of the key points from what we had in the first presentation. Study was done August, end of August 22 through the end of May of 23. Don levels were 1.5 part per million. So not crazy high, but what we would consider a high risk level. Zearalenone approximately 150 parts per billion would consider that a moderate level.
But I think what’s neat about this study is over 460 cows each way. Cows were randomly assigned based upon lactation and calving date. When they entered the closeup pin. Now they didn’t receive, the test cows didn’t receive DTX in the close up pan. But once they freshen, they went to the assigned pan and then what it started receiving the DTX.
So, about a third first lactation, two thirds, second and greater. And again, what we’ve talked about for the preg checks at day 28 to 34, then again at 61 to 67. Scott, here’s a slide where we look at the service method. You know, a few of the cows actually were bred off of estrus.
The embryo transfer percentages and timed insemination. So what we’re talking about here for measuring the results is pregnancy per service. So being synchronized, we take the time factor out. And if you look at the control cows at first service 32.8 percent of the services resulted in a pregnancy at first check, whereas 41.1 percent of the DTX services resulted in a pregnancy.
Well, that’s a higher statistic.
Scott
It’s a big number.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah. And look at day 61 to 67, 27. 2 for the first lactation control cows, 32.3 for the DTX. So Scott, I, I hate to keep going back to that first presentation, but we did not see a milk difference there, but we did indicate that we felt the first lactation showed a DTX response and here you, here you got it.
So if my math is right, that’s 5.1 percentage units, higher pregnancy at the second preg check. So we did have some benefits.
Scott
Yeah, we did. And, and, you know, so I mentioned repro being my passion. I worked for a genetics company in the past. We did, you know, my, my love is repro and genetics. My first love anyway.
When I, when I think of, you know, five points of conception right here on these first lactation animals, and I look up here and I see we’re using embryos and sorted semen you know, this farm in particular, I know they’re using some very high dollar embryos. But even if you’re not a dairy farm that’s utilizing embryo transfer, if you’re just using sorted semen, you’re paying a premium for those heifer calves for that sorted semen.
And, you know, Larry, I call it being a conception junkie. Show me a farmer that wouldn’t like higher pregnancies per service. And five percentage units is a, in my mind, a pretty big number because as we talk about reproduction, there’s so many things that go into reproduction, protocol compliance, management, facilities, and then all the inflammation stuff, whether it’s mycotoxins, whether it’s heat stress, overcrowding, all these things factor into how well that cow gets pregnant.
And we supplemented these cows with DTX and nothing else changed. That’s incredible. Yeah. So how did we fare with the second lactation and greater cows?
Dr. Larry Roth
Okay. Well, second and greater, again, we got another two and a half pounds of milk per day for 450 days statistical improvement, but here, Scott, we look at reproductive success.
You can see again, those who were bred off of estrous ET or timed insemination, but look at pregnancy per service. For control, 39.9 percent of the services resulted in a pregnancy, 46.6 percent for the DTX. And again, if my math is right, that’s going to be what, 6.7 percent units higher. And if you look at the second PREG check, 31.7 percent for the control. 38.2 for DTX. Wow. What is that? That’s going to be six and a half percentage units.
Scott
Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
Very nice statistical improvement. So again, if we’re helping the cow protect herself against mycotoxins, she isn’t diverting off nutrients for the immune response, cellular repair. She’s able to put nutrients into productive purposes.
And the very last thing she thinks about putting nutrients into is getting pregnant. And here she was able to have more nutrients to put into reproductive success.
Scott
You know, seven, six and a half points of conception rate over five on the first lactation animals. You know, this is just looking at first service results.
So Larry, I’m a big first service guy. You’ve heard me preach this before. If I were in charge of a farm’s repro, I would invest all I can into first service success because it sets that cow up so well. We get her bread back early. We keep the days open down. We keep the days and milk down.
And Larry, you’re the nutrition expert. Isn’t it a lot easier to make milk off of cows with lower days of milk?
Dr. Larry Roth
Oh, absolutely. One of the best ways to improve milk production for that next lactation is reduce the days of milk for the whole herd.
Scott
Yeah. So you mentioned so that this was obviously done on 920 cows, 460 each way.
We talked about that. The statistical relevance of that milk production, the two and a half pounds, that was very strong. Where did we come out with the reproduction results?
Dr. Larry Roth
Well, here you go, Scott.
Scott
Oh, you got it queued up already. You’re on the ball.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yeah. So for that, that first PREG check, the P value 0.03, and at the second PREG check, 0. 06. So we could say that at the second PREG check, it was a trend. We weren’t at the 0. 05 level, but a very nice improvement. This here is taking all of the lactations together.
Scott
Okay, this is all lactations.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yep. So at the first preg check, as I do the math here in my head, we had an improvement of what, 2.3? No. Not 2.3, 7.3 percentage units.
Scott
Yep.
Dr. Larry Roth
A P value of 0.03. When we look at pregnancy per service at 61 to 67 days post service, we had an improvement of 6.1 percentage units.
Scott
Wow.
Dr. Larry Roth
0.06 for a p value. So when it comes to repro numbers, we need a lot of cows. And I think here we were able to get some very nice statistical improvements.
Scott, let’s go over here. Let’s look at what we did by service method. We look at AI, and we look at embryo transfer and we can see that at that second PREG service we improved the numbers by gosh, that’s going to be what 9.5 percentage units off of AI.
Scott
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
And if you look over here for the E2 ET we’re going to be. I’m doing mouth in my head.
Scott
About 4. 3.
Dr. Larry Roth
Yep. 4.3 percentage units. And you, you made a, a key observation earlier. Some of these embryos had a tremendous dollar value.
Scott
Yes, they did.
Dr. Larry Roth
You know more than I do what the sex Holstein semen is costing. And you look at the value of be it a beef on dairy calf or a high genetic female. There’s a lot of money there. But the only way the dairy realizes those returns is getting the animal pregnant and having her carry it to term.
So if we can help the cow protect herself against the mycotoxin contamination, she’s able to put nutrients to more productive purposes, be it milk production, or in our situation here in this podcast, reproductive success. We accomplished our objectives.
Scott
Larry, I was an artificial insemination technician for seven years. And man, if I could have had 10 points or eight, eight points of conception, six points of conception difference, I probably would have had a lot more customers having me breed their cows.
You know, just it’s still blows my mind. The reproduction data here is where I’m trying to get to that. Because we, and the reason it does, you know, we think of zearalenone, which was in the TMR samples, but not really at a very high level high risk level 45, I think was the average parts per billion.
And you know, so we think it was zearalenone, it’s the estrogenic toxin. We think of that as being a direct influencer on repro. But, as we talked about before. You know, when there’s multiple toxins in the diet, we had Don roughly at 1,500 parts per billion, 1.5 PPM, and zearalenone, each of these toxins have a kind of separate mode of action, right?
They’re attacking the cow in different ways. And, it’s a synergistic effect. It’s a cumulative effect. When I see these kinds of results, Larry, with six points of conception rate difference overall you know, it’s mind boggling to me as, as somebody that’s passionate about repro, because we don’t think of those levels as being super high.
If I’ve learned one thing from the results of this study, it’s really challenged my thought as to what a high level of toxins, mycotoxins is in the TMR.
Dr. Larry Roth
At what point do cows start to be challenged by mycotoxins?
Scott
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
We got people say 3 part per million, 10 part per million. No, here you got cows that were well managed, excellent cow comfort.
And at these levels, one and a half part per million DON, 150 part per million zearalenone, we were able to get a response by providing the correct type of mycotoxin protection. In other words, we can see responses to controlling mycotoxins at much lower levels than what we’ve found in the past. It all comes to what is the cow doing with the nutrients that gets diverted off into dealing with the mycotoxins.
Scott
Exactly.
Dr. Larry Roth
We don’t have to have cows falling out of bed and all kinds of bad things happening to get an economic response to supplementing the DTX.
Scott
Yeah, so I, I just, I’m going to come back to it one more time. You know, I, I look at the artificial insemination results, right? So, control at 45, the DTX at 52.
Larry, we talked about it in the last episode. You know, this was a very well managed farm and, you know, people watching this right now, we’re listening to it on the podcast channels you know, when we say they had 34 percent embryo transfer. You know, that’s, that’s not, you know, 34 percent wouldn’t be very good if it was artificial insemination, that’s a pretty good number for embryo transfer.
45 percent artificial insemination, fou know, most clients are, most farms are pretty happy at that level. You know, we strive for 50 but 45 is not a bad number to be at. And so when I see a go from 45 to 52 Man, that’s just, just great, great turnout or a great result.
So Larry do you have more slides?
Dr. Larry Roth
No, that’s it for the reproduction.
Scott
Okay. And so you can go ahead and stop share and we’ll just kind of wrap up here for this episode. Again, the ruminate this podcast here with, with Dr. Larry Roth, and we’ve been going over the DTX research results on the reproduction data.
And Larry, this, this nutrient allocation or nutrient reallocation, if you would, partitioning, you know, we’ve talked about a little bit in these, in these first two episodes. And I, I’m going to drop a teaser for everybody. We’re going to be talking about that in another upcoming episode.
But, what’s your biggest takeaway, I think, from the reproduction results that we just went over? And how we can help that cow you know, long term and finish out this lactation, so on.
Dr. Larry Roth
You bet. I think At the risk of sounding like I’m repeating myself, it comes back to understanding that at even at moderate levels, mycotoxins are diverting nutrients away from productive purposes. And Helping the cow protect herself at moderate levels of mycotoxins can yield some dramatic results on the dairy in terms of reproduction, in terms of milk production.
So it causes me to rethink at what point are mycotoxins causing challenges for the cow. Well it depends on what we’re wanting the cow to do with those nutrients. Scott are we okay leaving two and a half pounds of milk on the table? What’s the price of milk besides too low? I don’t know. I’m going to say $18.
Other people are going to say, well, it’s less than that. It’s more than that. But at 18, that’s going to be what 45 cents we were leaving on the table? For those second and greater lactation cows? Let’s say that our DTX was 11 cents, 12 cents. Well, that’s where we get our three and a half to one return on investment for milk production with those second and greater lactation cows.
Scott, here’s the real question. What’s a pregnancy worth?
Scott
Hmm.
Dr. Larry Roth
What’s the pregnancy worth? Now we can say, well, it depends if it’s a high dollar ET, heifer calf. It can depend if it’s a beef on dairy, a steer calf. It can depend on what we’re doing for improving our days in milk. There’s all kinds of factors that come into play.
So we don’t have to determine exactly what the right value is for the value of pregnancy. But it’s got a value.
Scott
Oh, it sure does.
Dr. Larry Roth
It’s got a significant value.
Scott
I can tell you one thing, Larry, getting that cow pregnant. On the first service, way more valuable than getting her pregnant on service three or four, we get her pregnant at 75 days in milk. That’s way more valuable than getting her pregnant at 150 days of milk.
You know, we can have a conversation about, you know, days open, reducing days open, and there’s, you can put a number to that, but but yeah, there’s so many factors that come into that. And making that calculation of what the value of a pregnancy really is you know, you have the time factor you have increased milk production, following lactation, right?
Keeping days and milk low you know, less days on feed represented in that day’s open number. And Larry, I’ve said it already genetic and reproduction, my, my first love, the genetic value of that, of that offspring, you know? She’s pregnant with a high value calf. You know.
So most farms, and I don’t want to say most, a number of farms that I used to work with, and I know farms still do this today, I cringe at the thought, but it was like, we’re going to spend extra money on those first couple of services and try to get the best bull pregnant, right?
The best bull pregnant to that cow or get that cow pregnant to the best bull. But then when we get into those third, fourth, 5th services, we don’t like spending $20 or $25 or $30 a unit for sorted semen. We want a high, we just want high conception bulls. We want a high conception bull for those services.
Sometimes we’re giving up genetic value to do that. What’s the difference in value there? I mean, we could bring in a whole discussion on net merit or herd health dollars with, with the zoetis traits. But yeah, we could have that discussion of that animal getting pregnant to a bull that’s maybe 800 net merit versus 1200.
I mean, it’s, there’s so many factors that go into that. But great, great point. And also Larry from, you know the, the pregnancy rate chart was that Dr. Cabrera out of UW Madison?
Dr. Larry Roth
Yep.
Scott
So, you know, Dr. Cabrera’s pregnancy rate chart, the value of improving pregnancy rate on your farm, moving on that scale from, you know, a 30 preg rate to a 35, where we’re assigning a value to each point of preg rate. And that’s on a per cow per year basis.
You know, if we improve five preg rate points and we value preg rate at even $7 a preg rate point, that’s $35 per cow per year times how many cows you have? I mean, the, the repro numbers get pretty big and.
You know, I guess my takeaway, Larry, is, is that you know, six points of conception rate to add in a product that you can get through your feed mill, that’s pretty easy way to get six percentage points. Any closing thoughts there you want to add in?
Dr. Larry Roth
No, I just think it causes us Scott, to rethink at what level are cows challenged by mycotoxins. Challenged to the point that they’re reallocating, repartitioning where their nutrients go.
At what level are we happy leaving milk on the table? At what level are we happy not achieving the reproductive success that we could potentially get?
Scott
Yeah.
Dr. Larry Roth
So it causes us to reevaluate our mycotoxin levels that we live with. We need to be thinking about protecting the cow, protecting our financial investment.
Scott
Challenging the status quo. I love it.
Dr. Larry Roth
There you go.
Scott
Well, Dr. Roth, thank you again for joining me for going over the DTX research results, this time reproduction. You can catch the production reports on our previous episode, episode two, part one DTX research, the production data. And again, we’re going to be dropping episodes every 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday of every month.
So be sure to check out our next episode. Dr. Larry Roth, thank you again for joining us. Hope you have a great week and we’ll talk to you again soon.
Dr. Larry Roth
All right. Thank you, Scott. Glad to be here.
Scott
Bye.
Dr. Larry Roth
Bye.
