Analysis reveals improved milk production in dairy farming by strategically timing calving, suggesting better profitability and sustainability.
Dairy enterprises in three Cuban provinces with high milk production potential (Granma, Camagüey, and Mayabeque) were selected to evaluate, under their specific conditions, the seasonality of calving during the rainy period as an easily applicable animal management technique across different enterprises, leveraging the greater pasture availability during this time. This research was conducted through targeted experiments in herds from the Hermanos Lotti enterprise in Granma, the dairy triangle in Camagüey, and six herds from the Sureste enterprise in Mayabeque. Additionally, data spanning 20 years from two genetic dairy cattle enterprises, Los Naranjos (Havana province) and Nazareno (Mayabeque province), were analyzed to further investigate performance by season. For this, 118,000 lactations were utilized, which occurred from calvings in both the rainy and dry periods. In all evaluated provinces and enterprises, milk production improved by more than 0.7 kg/cow/day for cows calving in the rainy season compared to those calving in the dry season. The improvement was always significant when the highest percentage of calvings occurred close to the rainy period (April, May). The results suggest that, under current Cuban conditions, it is advantageous to achieve the highest number of calvings during the rainy period, characterized by abundant pasture, recommending the period from April to September, so that peak milk production and subsequent gestation coincide with the time of greatest pasture availability.
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Samaniego et al. (2025) studied this question.