Treatment of noncyclic lactating dairy cows with progesterone and estradiol or with progesterone, GnRH, prostaglandin F2 alpha, and estradiol

The efficacy of two programs for treating noncyclic cows was compared. In trial 1, 478 cows in five herds were randomly divided into two groups. Cows in one group (C group) were treated with an intravaginal progesterone device for 8 d followed in 48 h by 1 mg of estradiol benzoate to cows that had not been detected in estrus since device removal. Those in the other group (CGP group) were treated with progesterone and estradiol as for the C group plus 10 micrograms of a GnRH agonist (buserelin) at device insertion and 25 mg of PGF2 alpha 7 d after device insertion. In trial 2 with 729 cows in nine herds, the treatments were similar to those in trial 1 except that the duration of progesterone treatment was 7 d. No significant difference was found between trials and results from both trials were combined. Compared with C group cows, CGP group cows had a greater estrous response rate (93.2 vs. 89.1%), a greater conception rate to first artificial insemination (AI, 47.1 vs. 29.4%), marginally lower conception rate to second AI (52.9 vs. 59.7%), lower nonpregnancy rate (8.3 vs. 11.1%), and shorter intervals from the start of breeding to conception by AI (9.8 vs. 15.3 d) or by AI or natural mating (21.6 vs. 26.3 d). The treatment protocol used for the CGP group achieved better reproductive performance than that used for the C group.