Causes of Culling and Disease Incidences At First Production Year of Imported Brown Swiss and Simmental Cows From Austria

The purpose of this study is to determine the disease incidences and the causes of culling of Brown Swiss and Simmental cows before and after calving. The study material was consisted of 70 Brown Swiss and 282 Simmental pregnant heifers. 8.57% and 9.57% of Brown Swiss and Simmental cows had various diseases before calving, and the treatment success rates were 16.67% and 81.48%. After calving, the disease incidences of Brown Swiss cows was 75.39%, and the disease incidences of Simmental cows was 64.26%. While digestion and Genital diseases were more common before calving, Genital and udder problems were more common after calving. Simmental cows had a higher rate of treatment success before calving (P<0.05). Both breeds had similar rates of treatment success after calving. 7.14% of Brown Swiss cows were culled before calving, and 23.08% were culled after calving due to various reasons. For Simmental cows, the culling rate was 1.77% before calving and 14.08% after calving. Simmental cows were more disease-resistant, responded more positively to treatment and had a lower culling rate than Brown Swiss cows