Relationships between welfare and reproductive performance in French dairy herds.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between cow reproductive performance and welfare evaluated at the herd level using the Welfare Quality protocol. The 11 criteria, four principles (good feeding, good housing, good health and appropriate behavior, scale 0-100) and overall welfare category (excellent/enhanced/acceptable/not classified = poor welfare) were included as risk factors for calving to first service interval (CFSI) and calving rate (CR). The confounding factors cow breed, parity, season of calving and AI, calving to AI interval, rank of AI (1-3) and milk production were taken into account.