Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
Effects of Breed, Calving Season and Parity on Milk Yield, Body Weight and Efficiency of Dairy Cows under Subtropical Conditions
1Angel Rios-Utrera, 2Rene Carlos Calderon-Robles, 3Jose Reyes Galaviz-Rodriguez, 1Vicente Eliezer Vega-Murillo and 4Juvencio Lagunes-Lagunes
1Campo Experimental La Posta, INIFAP. Kilometro 22.5 carretera federal Veracruz-Cordoba Paso del Toro, Municipio de Medellin de Bravo, Veracruz, Mexico, 94277
2Sitio Experimental Las Margaritas, INIFAP. Kilometro 9.5 carretera Hueytamalco-Tenampulco, Hueytamalco, Puebla, Mexico, 73580
3Universidad Autonoma de Tlaxcala. Avenida Universidad No. 1, Tlaxcala, Tlax., Mexico
4Centro de Investigaciones Pecuarias del Estado de Puebla, A.C. (CIPEP, A.C.).
Kilometro 9.5 carretera Hueytamalco-Tenampulco, Hueytamalco, Puebla, Mexico, 73580
International Journal Animal and Veterinary Advances 2013 6:226-232
Received: May 03, 2013 | Accepted: June 01, 2013 | Published: December 20, 2013
Abstract
Records of 354 Holstein Friesian (HF) and Brown Swiss (BS) cows born from 1986 to 2006 at Las Margaritas research station, under subtropical conditions of Mexico, were analyzed to estimate milk yield per lactation (MYL, n = 1229), milk yield per day (MYD, n = 1227), milk yield per calving interval (MYCI, n = 929), lactation length (LL, n = 1229), calving weight (CW, n = 1164) and efficiency of milk production (EMP, n = 890). The cows were daughters of 144 sires and 232 dams. Models included breed of cow (2 classes: HF and BS), calving year (22 classes: 1989-2010), calving season (3 classes: cold, from November to February; dry, from March to June; and rainy, from July to October), lactation number (4 classes: 1, 2, 3 and ≥4), linear (except for CW) and quadratic (except for MYD and CW) effect of lactation length and linear effect of calving weight (except for LL). The random effect, other than the error term, was sire of the cow nested within breed of cow. Holstein Friesian cows yielded 261, 0.8 and 0.7 kg more milk per lactation, per day and per calving interval, respectively, than BS cows. In addition, HF cows were more efficient (p<0.05) to yield milk and had heavier CW (21 kg difference; p<0.05) than BS cows. Non-significant difference was found between HF and BS cows in LL (358±5.8 and 348±6.0 day, respectively). Milk yield per lactation, MYD, MYCI, EMP and CW increased significantly from first to second and from second to third lactation. However, first-, second-, third- and fourth-parity dams did not differ in LL (p>0.05). Cows that calved in the cold season had greater (p<0.05) MYD, MYCI and EMP than cows that calved in the dry and rainy seasons. Lactation length was similar among cold, dry and rainy seasons.
Keywords:
Brown swiss, cow efficiency, cow weight, Holstein, milk yield, subtropics,
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Copyright
The authors have no competing interests.
|
|
 |
ISSN (Online): 2041-2908
ISSN (Print): 2041-2894 |
 |
| Information |
|
|
|
|
| Sales & Services |
|
|
|
|
