Abstract

The study aimed to identify the culling reasons of Holstein cows raised in a large commercial herd in Egypt with emphasis on the performance of retained and culled cows. A total of 31534 complete lactation records for 10994 cows calved from 2008 to 2019 were used. The overall rate of culling per lactation was 61.1%. Involuntary culling represented 92% of all culling cases. The reasons for culling included mastitis and udder problems (24.2%), reproductive disorders (18.7%), metabolic and digestive disorders (13.6%), lameness (13%), endemic diseases (10.8%), low milk yield (8.1%), respiratory diseases (4.3%) and unknown causes (7.3%). Means of 305-day milk yield and daily milk yield were significantly lower in culled cows than the retained ones. On the other hand, no significant differences were observed between culled and retained cows for days open and the number of services/conception. The high involuntary culling rate of Holstein under the Egyptian conditions revealed that management practices regarding mastitis prevention and reproductive efficiency should be improved.