Differences between dairy cows descending from artificial insemination bulls vs. dairy cows descending from natural service bulls on organic farms in Switzerland

This study investigated differences between phenotypes of daughters of artificial insemination (AI)-bulls and daughters of natural service (NS)-bulls, respectively, on organic dairy farms in Switzerland. Organic rules recommend the use of natural mating. Therefore it is of interest whether those two groups of phenotypes show different characteristics on organic farms. Only farms using both AI and NS with sires of the same dairy breed as the inseminated cows were included in the study. First lactations of 594 cows from 29 farms were analysed for daily milk yield (DMY), somatic cell score (SCS), and calving interval (CI). Furthermore, veterinary treatments and fat/protein ratios >1.5 and