For more than a quarter century, Michigan State University professor J. Richard Pursley has been at the forefront of world-renowned research and dairy cattle fertility management programs that have played a pivotal role in bolstering Michigan to the sixth-largest dairy producer in the country. His work has propelled the state’s $15-billion dairy industry toward a more productive, profitable, efficient and sustainable future.

 

Michigan’s dairy industry includes more than 1,000 farms raising 440,000 cows that support nearly 40,000 jobs, both on and off the farm. The state’s dairy farms produced nearly 12 billion pounds of milk in 2021.

Effective fertility synchronization and fertility management programs, like those developed by Pursley and his collaborators, have sustained and enhanced the productivity of Michigan farms and farms around the country. These programs increase dairy profitability by approximately $135,000 a year on a 1,000-cow dairy farm, Pursley said.

Fertility management programs are designed to increase the likelihood that cows become pregnant during first artificial insemination.

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