Evaluation of Lactation and Performance of Friesian Cow in Local Environment of Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan

Several traits of interest were recorded from Holstein Friesian cattle (n=610 out of which 2 died) reared at the Government Dairy Farm Pishin, Balochistan, Pakistan. These included various measures of lactation performance and general information on the cows: traits like lactation milk yield, lactation length, dry period, year of calving, month of calving and parity. Standard management conditions were offered (24-h ad lib water, 2 times green fodder) with concentrate (Anmol Vanda @ 3 kg per head). The animals were housed in semi-open system and vaccination against various diseases were done according to vaccination schedule given by Govt of Balochistan Livestock Department. Avg age at calving ranged from 24-30 months and 6 parities were recorded on average.

The data was fed into MS excel worksheet and edited. Any record beyond ± 3 S.D. (standard deviation) was omitted/removed. After editing, the data was analyzed using following mathematical models:

Y(ijklm)= YOC(i)+SOC(j)+LL(k)+Age(l)+Age2+ YOC Ԑ SOC(IJ).+Ԑ(ijklm)

where Yijklm is lactation performance recorded, YOC(i) is Ith year of calving, SOC(j) is jth season of calving,

YOC SOC(ij) is interaction of ith and jth year of calving, LL(k) is kth length of lactation related to any milk or lactation performance recorded, Age (l) is age of the animal at time of calving recorded in months, Age2 is quardatic effects of age of animal (as both linear and quadratic effects of age are usually used in such models mostly as covariables), Eijklmn is random error associated with each observation.

Preliminary descriptive analysis was conducted using SPSS software. Further analysis was conducted using ASREML software.

Different models were applied and finally one model was reached for optimum results for all traits. LL was both treated as dependent variable in milk traits and independent variable as well. Parity remained non-significant in all models so it was excluded ultimately.

The average lactation milk yield (LMY) of 2322.53±150.7 L as found in present study was greater than the values reported by different findings of many researchers. Nahar et al. (1992) reported LMY of Desi × HF as 1702.8±44.2 L, value of average LMY by Talbott (1994) was 1314±23.7 L in Desi cross. Mean lactation milk yield was found to be 1395±9.9 L in cross animals (Dahlin et al., 1998). Average LMY was found to be 1432.8±51.2 L (Aslam et al., 2002) and 429±11.4 L (Rehman et al., 2008). LMY in the study of Habib et al. (2010) was found to be 500.7±19.3 L. LMY value reported by Hassan and Khan (2013) was 1633±49.03 L while in the findings of Fernando et al. (2016) stated LMY was 2235±77.6 L. All these given values of different research work were lower than present results. Similarly reported values of LMY of Afridi (1999), Sattar et al. (2005), Irshad et al. (2011), Sandhu et al. (2011), Usman et al. (2012) and Faid-Allah (2015) were 3002.66±45.49, 2772.76±65.0, 3992.41±16.20, 3977.75±37.20, 3438±887.19 and 7208.72±1753.6 L respectively, which are higher than the current findings.

The average lactation length (LL) in Holstein-Friesian cattle (n=608) was found to be 278.18±10.86 days which is higher than those reported by other authors. Talbott (1994), Dhalin et al. (1998), Khatri et al. (2004) and Rehman et al. (2008) stated average lactation length as 238±2.6, 232±1.3, 226.98 and 235±2.2 days respectively in different cattle breeds and these values are lower than present results. Islam and Bhuiyan (1997) reported LL value of 247.23±3.51 days, Habib et al. (2010) as 259.6±6.2 days and Hassan and Khan (2013) as 240±5.5 days. All of these values are lower than current findings.

LL, lactation length; LMY, lactation milk yield; MY-305 days, milk yield 305 days; DP, dry period

Table II. Analysis of variance of LL, LMY, MY-305 days and DP of Holstein Friesian cattle affected by YOC, MOC and Parity.

YOC has highly significant effect on LL, LMY and DP (p<0.01) while significant effect (p<0.05) on MY-305 days.

MOC non-significantly (p˃0.05) effected on LL, MY-305 days and DP while this factor has significant effect (p<0.05) on LMY.

Parity has significant effect (p<0.05) on MY-305 days while all other traits were non-significantly affected (p˃0.05) by this factor.

MOC, month of calving and YOC, year of calving. See Table I for remaining abbreviations.

Some LL values were higher compared to present study as reported by Nahar et al. (1992) as 330.5±3.6 days, Afridi (1999) as 315.09±17.75 days, Sattar et al. (2005) as 291.86±6.55 days, Irshad et al. (2011) as 320.14±11.14 days, Sandhu et al. (2011) as 314.19±0.91 days, Usman et al. (2012) as 366.5±76.71 days, Fernando et al. (2016) as 323.78±91.02 days. Javed et al. (2004) reported this value as 278.40±90.17 days which was similar to the current results. The variations reported in the results from different researchers may be attributed to the variations in breed, housing, management and nutritional conditions.

Overall average dry period (DP) in present study was found to be 234.46±52.16 days that was considerably longer than reported by Nahar et al. (1992) as 148.1±8.8 days, Talbott (1994) as 228±11.7 days, Aslam et al. (2002) as 198.9±17.17 days, Sattar et al. (2005) as 224.99±10.00 days, Habib et al. (2010) as 162.4±7.7 days, Suhail et al. (2010) as 169.26±16.45 days, Sandhu et al. (2011) as 87.06±1.63 days, Usman et al. (2012) as 100.26±61.38 days, Faid-Allah (2015) as 72.33±20.03 days and Fernando et al. (2016) as 120±12.2 days. DP reported by Khatri at el. (2004) and Rehman et al. (2008) was 455.1 and 244±2.8 days respectively, which were higher than the current findings.

Regarding average 305 days milk yield (days MY), results were 2781.08±551.26 L which are higher than reported values of different researchers. Average values of MY-305 days reported by Mohiuddin et al. (1991), Chaudary et al. (1994), Dahlin et al. (1998), Aslam et al. (2002), Rehman et al. (2008), Hassan and Khan (2013) were found to be 1603±12.3, 2729.0±669.3, 1363±30.1, 1864.5±77.1, 1393±11.7 and 1613±49.03 L. The results of Nawaz et al. (1993) and Faid-Allah (2015) were 2889±92 and 6384.95±1236.9 L, which were considerably higher than current values.

Non-genetic factors like year of calving (YOC), month of calving (MOC) and parity also have different effects on the lactation traits. LMY was significantly (p<0.01) affected by year of calving and month of calving while parity influenced non-significantly (p>0.05) on this lactation trait. Similarly, year of calving and month of calving also significantly (p<0.01) affected the lactation length. In this case parity showed non-significant (p>0.05) effect as in previous trait. Milk yield 305 days and dry period was significantly (p<0.01) affected by year of calving and month of calving. Parity has non-significant (p>0.05) effect on both traits.

The relationship between fixed factors and lactation performance could be used to increase production. For example, if year of calving had a positive effect on milk yield, we can use this relationship in practice to increase milk yield by adopting the management practices to inseminate the animal regarding our desired calving year. Month of calving and year of calving has significant effect on milk yield, hence the husbandry practices could be adopted for fruitful gains.

Supplementary Table I gives study conditions, parameters investigated and findings from literature data by different researchers to have a deep look on productive performance of crossbred and exotic cattle.

Non-native cattle breeds imported and kept at Balochistan at different locations are performing well regarding production. The climate in Quetta is cool, humid and temperate so these climatic conditions are favoring the production potential exploitation. Better performance of dairy cattle could be achieved by modern husbandry practices, nutritional manipulations and proper disease control. By adopting these manipulations, we can attain the desired effects of YOC, MOC, SOC and age of the cow to increase milk production.

Authors are grateful to the Government Livestock Farms in extending their cooperation for this research work.

There is supplementary material associated with this article. Access the material online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pjz/20190328080332

The authors have declared no conflict of interest.