Review Article IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY ON REPRODUCTION IN DAIRY CATTLE

Abstract: Maintaining energy balance in the early lactating dairy cow is extremely difficult, especially with low energy forages. Most early lactation cows, because of their slow response to increasing dry matter intake (DMI), usually are in negative energy balance from one or two days after calving until 70 to 85 days into lactation. This issue of balancing energy in early lactation is complex because of the interaction between body condition (reflecting degree of fat deposition) and the period of time after calving that cows reach their peak dry matter intake and the influence of forage quality on voluntary dry matter intake