Indian J. Anim. Res., 48 (3) : 286-289, 2014
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE
www.arccjournals.com
doi:10.5958/j.0976-0555.48.3.060
LIFETIME MILK PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY OF JERSEY COWS UNDER SUB-TEMPERATE CONDITIONS Krishanender Dinesh* , Y.P. Thakur1, S. Katoch and Varun Sankhyan Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur -176 062, India
Received: 11-01-2013
Accepted: 08-02-2013 ABSTRACT
Lifetime performance and disposal data on 154 Jersey cows, progeny of 14 sires getting disposed off due to natural reasons after completing at least one lactation of more than 180 days duration from the dairy herd of Instructional livestock farm, CSK, Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur were utilized to evaluate the lifetime production efficiency in terms of milk yield per day of herd life, milk yield per day of total lactation period and milk yield per day of longevity of the exotic Jersey cows in sub-temperate climatic conditions of Himachal Pradesh to judge overall suitability and adaptation of the breed to native environs. The overall least squares means estimated for lifetime milk yield per day of herd life, lifetime milk yield per day of total lactation length and lifetime milk yield per day of longevity were 4.77± 0.18 kg, 6.46± 0.13 kg and 2.92± 0.12 kg respectively. The mean performance for these traits was comparable to earlier estimates reported for Jersey and its crossbred cows in different agro climatic regions of the country. The analysis of different factors affecting these traits revealed period of calving and first lactation milk yield as significant sources of variation for milk yield per day of herd life and lactation period while the age at first calving and first lactation milk yield significantly influenced milk yield per day of longevity. The results suggested reasonably good performance and adaptation of the breed in local agro climatic conditions and validated the effect of existing culling of low yielders based on first lactation yields.
Key words: Jersey cows, Lifetime, Milk production efficiency, Non- genetic factors. INTRODUCTION Although Jersey, a temperate dairy cattle breed with relatively small body size and better reproduction potential, has long been suggested for improving dairy cattle productivity in the tropics (Cunningham and Syrstad, 1987) but evaluating the longevity and lifetime performance of cows maintained under different agro climatic conditions is important for overall assessment of breed performance and adaptability (Harris and Freemann, 1993). The production efficiency traits determine the milk production of the animals in relation to their reproductive fitness and can be better selection criteria for simultaneous improvement of both milk production and reproductive efficiency. The lifetime milk production efficiency is the determinant of the net economic birth of a dairy animal over its entire
lifespan. The present study was undertaken to analyse the lifetime production efficiency of Jersey cows maintained under sub-temperate agro climatic conditions of Himachal Pradesh. MATERIALS AND METHODS The performance and disposal data utilized for present study was obtained from performance and disposal records of 154 Jersey cows progeny of 14 sires which got disposed off due to natural reasons after completing at least one lactation of more than 180 days duration from the dairy herd of Instructional livestock farm, CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur over a period of 14 years from 1988 to 2002. The farm is situated in North- Western Himalayan region of India at latitude 32.6°N, longitude 76.3° E and elevati on 1290 mts above msl in mid-hill sub-temperate region of
* Corresponding author’s e- mail:
[email protected],
[email protected].
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Himachal Pradesh. The traits considered for evaluating the lifetime production efficiency of the Jersey cows were milk yield per day of herd life, milk yield per day of total lactation length and milk yield per day of longevity.
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reported by Sreemannarayana et al. (1996) and Raut et al. (2003) in Jersey crossbreds in AP and Maharashtra. Higher mean estimate of 6.750.28 kg for lifetime milk yield per day of herd life had been reported by Teodora and Madalena (2005) in The entire duration of 14 years was divided Brazilian Jersey cows. The lifetime milk yield per into four periods by clubbing first 12 years into three day of total lactation length obtained in this study periods (P1 :1988 to 1992, P2 :1993 to 1996 and P3 was in agreement with Sreemannarayana et al. : 1997 to 2000) and the last two years into single (1996) for Jersey crossbred cows in Andhra fourth period ( P4 :2001 to 2002), six first lactation Pradesh. Lower estimates ranging from 4.04± 0.14 milk yield groups viz. FL1 (having milk yield less than kg to 6.38± 0.12 kg for lifetime milk yield per day of 1500 kg), FL2 (1500 to 2000 kg), FL3 (2000 to 2500 total lactation length had been reported by Sadana kg), FL 4 (2500 to 3000 kg), FL 5 (3000 to 3500 kg) (1984), Deshmukh et al. (1995),Thakur (1999) and and FL 6 (more than 3500 kg) and six groups based Thiruvenkadan (2012) in Jersey cows. Higher on age at first calving viz. AFC›1- (less than 900 days), estimates (range 7.02± 0.10 kg to 9.59± 0.16 kg) for AFC2› (900 to1050 days), AFC3 (1050 to 1200 days), lifetime milk yield per day of total lactation length AFC4 (1200 to 1350 days), AFC5 (1350 to 1500 have been reported by Mangurkar (1986), Murdia and Tripathi (1991) and Rao and Rao (1996) in days) and AFC6 (more than 1500 days). Jersey cows from India. The lifetime milk yield per Since the number of observations was day of longevity obtained in this study was in unequally and disproportionately distributed in different sub-classes leading to non-orthogonality of agreement with the estimates reported by Rao and the data, the analysis was done by least –squares Rao (1996) in Jersey cows imported from Australia method of fitting constants (Harvey, 1990) to but in another study, they reported higher estimates estimate the effect of non-genetic factors. The of 9.61± 0.26 kg for lifetime milk yield per day of following mathematical model was used for longevity. Lower estimates, than the present for evaluating the effects of different factors on each trait: lifetime milk yield per day of longevity have been reported by Raut et al. (2003) in Jersey crossbreds. Yijkl = + Pi+ + Aj+ L k eijkl ; where, Effects of non-genetic factors: Highly significant Yijkl = is the lth observation of a cow belonging to ith (P< 0.01) effect of period of calving was observed period, jth age group and kth milk yield group. on lifetime milk yield per day of herd-life that ranged m = Overall mean. between 4.10 kg to 5.52 kg during different periods Pi = effect of the ith period of calving. of calving, lifetime milk yield per day of total lactation th Aj = effect if j age at first calving group. length (ranged between 5.32 to 7.67 kg during th L k = effect of k first lactation milk yield class different period of calving) with cows calving during eijkl = Random residual error. later periods showing decline in mean value for the RESULTS AND DISCUSSION traits considered. The milk yield per day of herd life, Least squares means and variability: The overall though differed significantly among periods, but it least squares means estimated for lifetime milk yield per day of herd life, lifetime milk yield per day of was observed to be relatively uniform during later total lactation length and lifetime milk yield per day periods with gradual reproductive adaptation of of longevity were 4.77± 0.18 kg, 6.46± 0.13 kg and imported stock and improvisation of managemental 2.92± 0.12 kg respectively with corresponding practices. Similar findings were reported by Thakur coefficient of variation values of 29, 15 and 34 per (1999) in Jersey cows. The significant effect of period cent. The lifetime milk yield per day of herd life of calving on lifetime milk yield per day of total obtained in this study were comparable to the earlier lactation length had been reported in several studies estimates reported by Thakur (1999) in Jersey cows but higher than estimates of 3.71 0.13 for Australian (Murdia and Tripathi, 1991; Deshpande et al., 1992 origin and 2.59 ± 0.09 kg in Denmark origin Jersey and Deshmukh et al., 1995). They observed reported by Thiruvenkadan (2012) in Tamilnadu. differential performance for two associated traits Lower estimates ranging from 2.69 to 2.87 kg were during different periods of calving due to
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INDIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL RESEARCH TABLE 1: LSM± SE for various factors affecting lifetime production
Effect
No. of observation
efficiency traits in Jersey cows.
Lifetime milk yield Lifetime milk yield per day of herd life (kg) per day of total lactation period (kg) Overall mean 154 4.77± .18 6.46± .13 Period of calving ** ** P1 69 5.52± .18a 7.67± .13a P2 43 4.82± .23b 6.64± .16b b P3 33 4.65± .29 6.21± .21b P4 9 4.10± .50b 5.32± .36b Age at first calving NS NS AFC1 15 4.65± .42a 6.39± .29a AFC2 24 4.83± .36a 6.39± .25a AFC3 38 4.77± .28a 6.47± .19a a AFC4 32 4.81± .29 6.32± .21a a AFC5 20 5.04± .33 6.67± .23a AFC6 15 4.53± .30a 6.53± .22a First lactation milk yield * * FL 1 15 3.88± .38a 5.97± .27a FL 2 48 4.44± .23a 5.91± .17a FL 3 39 4.74± .26ac 6.37± .18ac FL 4 25 4.50± .30ac 6.77± .22bc FL 5 18 5.37± .37bc 6.18± .27ac FL 6 9 5.71± .53bc 7.57± .38b ** = Significant (P< 0.01); * = Significant (P < 0.05); NS= Non-significant Means with same superscript do not differ significantly (P< 0.05)
managemental variations and effect of selection and culling of animals on the associated traits. The effect of age at first calving was observed statistically non- significant on lifetime milk yield per day of herd life and lifetime milk yield per day of total lactation length, but was highly significant (P< 0.01) on lifetime milk yield per day of longevity with mean values ranging from 2.73 to 3.10 kg during different age at first calving groups. Rao and Rao (1996) observed that lifetime milk yield per day of longevity was comparatively higher in late calving cows. However, in this study, lifetime milk yield per day of longevity decreased with increase in age at first calving. The lifetime milk yield per day of longevity was highest (3.53± 0.24 kg) for the cows having age at first calving between 900 to 1050 days and minimum (2.37± 0.21 kg) for cows having age at first calving of more than 1500 days. In general, the AFC of 900 to1050 days was observed ideal resulting in higher longevity and lifetime milk yield per day of lifespan. The effect of first lactation milk yield group was observed to be statistically significant (P< 0.05) on lifetime milk yield per day of herd life, lifetime milk yield per day of productive life and lifetime milk yield per day of longevity with all the traits showing
Lifetime milk yield per day of longevity (kg) 2.92± .12 NS 3.10± .13a 2.94± .16a 2.73± .20a 2.90± .35a ** 3.32± .29a 3.53± .25a 3.18± .19ac 2.56± .19bd 2.57± .23bcd 2.37± .21bd * 2.26± .26a 2.59± .16ab 2.94± .18cbd 2.97± .21cbd 3.10± .26cbd 3.66± .37cd
consistently increasing trend with increase in first lactation milk yield validating the culling strategy of removing low yielding cows based on their early lactation yields. The effect of first lactation milk yield on lifetime milk yield per day of longevity was observed statistically significant (P< 0.05). The lifetime milk yield per day of longevity increased with increase in first lactation milk yield and ranged between 2.25± 0.25 kg in Jersey cows having first lactation milk yield less than 1500 kg to 3.66± 0.36 kg in the cows with first lactation milk yield of more than 3500 kg. CONCLUSION From the results, it could be concluded that the lifetime production efficiency of Jersey cows was better under sub-temperate than tropical Indian conditions. Among different factors affecting performance for different measures of lifetime production efficiency, the effect of first lactation milk yield was significant for all traits, the effect of period of calving was significant for milk yield per day of herd life and per day of lactation period and the effect of age at first calving was observed highly significant (P< 0.01) on lifetime milk yield per day of longevity. The study also validates the culling strategy of removing low yielding cows based on their early lactation yields.
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